Devlin pays Spike a visit to discuss Buffy and catch up with his sire.

After the sun sets, Spike heads for home. Inside his flat, he discovers Devlin sitting on his couch, watching the tele.

"What's wrong?," Spike asks. "Your Slayer give you the boot?"

"She doesn't have HBO. Mind if I tape Sex and the City' off your set? Oh. This one's a rerun. Big returns to New York, and Carrie spends the night in bed with him – with their clothes on. They just lie there, holding each other. That's all they do. For the whole night! How lame is that?" Devlin waits for an answer. Spike is, understandably, at a loss for words. "And he's supposed to be the show's bad boy."

"When was this first on?"

"Last year."

"When last year?"

"I dunno. In the summer, I think. Why?"

"No reason." Spike definitely wants to change the subject. "Wouldn't get too comfortable. I'm not looking for a roommate." Devlin laughs at Spike's joke and walks around the flat.

"You could use someone to help you decorate the place. It's large enough. But the bare whitewashed walls give it an institutional feel. And the furniture's depressingly bland."

"On the plus side, I did get it scot-free."

"You used to get better free accommodations."

"But I didn't have to kill for this one."

"That makes two of us," Devlin replies, referring to his present living arrangements.

"You can't keep this up for very long. It's against your nature."

"You're one to talk."

"That's different. I couldn't follow my nature."

"Because of the chip. I told you the microchip would change your life the first time we met. You wouldn't listen."

"You meant computers, not brain surgery. Can I get you something to drink?"

"That's nice of you." Devlin sits backs down on the couch. "Mind if I smoke?"

"Long as you let me bum one."

Spike hands Dev a cup, and the two of them light up and drink their animal blood. "Not bad. Course I've never been very discriminating when it comes to the red stuff. Human, animal – all tastes the same to me."

"It's not the taste you miss. It's the killing. And the longer you go without, the worse it hurts. Before I had my soul, once that chip stopped working I would've jumped the first person I saw."

"Where's the challenge in that? Like hunting farm animals. There's no payoff. It means nothing. I have to know that my work matters." Devlin chuckles. "Sorry to sound pretentious. I know how much you hate that. But you know better that there has to be excitement. Immortality's worthless if you don't put it on the line every now and then. You taught me that."

"And a whole lot more," Spike adds with obvious regret.

"Please, no remorse. Not around me. You don't tell your kid that you wish he was never born."

"I killed you, Herman. Took away your future."

"And gave me a whole new one. I've made the best of it. Most vampires don't. I'm the first to admit that just about all of them would have been better off not getting bit. But guys like you and me, we're the exception."

"You want me to be proud of you. Is that it?"

"Not proud. Astounded. But not yet. I've just gotten started."

"Right now, you seem to be caught in a holding pattern. Why didn't you kill Debbie like you did the first Slayer you met? Was she too strong for you?"

"I wouldn't know. I never tried to kill her. Never even tried to hurt her."

"Love at first sight." Spike rolls his eyes. "And you claim to be a bloody original."

"You're right about one thing. I was planning to kill her. But first, I had to scout her. See what she was made of."

"You always did love your sodding, tedious preparation."

"Two vampires attack Debbie, and I see a look of terror in her eyes. She wasn't fighting them. She was fighting them off. It wasn't combat. It was more like a mugging. She just wanted to escape, to have them leave her alone. I wasn't expecting that. Didn't take me long to change plans, rip off the nearest tree branch and take out her attackers."

"A Slayer who's a damsel. Opportunities don't get more bloody golden than that. Explains why she thinks you're a good guy. But how did the vamps know she was a Slayer before she did?"

"Long story. Interesting, but long. Maybe I'll tell you it later on. What mattered was you-know-who hadn't gotten to Debbie and turned her into one of the Borg. The Slayer I killed had no humanity left in her. She was all Slayer. Like a machine. A cog in a machine, actually. Part of some Greater Whole, saturated with purpose and mission and an air of inhuman invincibility. No cognizance of the fragility of her life."

"Sounds like you just got pissed cuz she wusn't afraid of you."

"You're wrong. It delighted me. The further she had to fall, the more I loved knocking her down. You wanna hear how I did it?"

"I already know. But how did you preserve the head all the way to Italy? That's a seven to ten day cruise."

"Dropped it in a jar of formaldehyde, stashed it in my suitcase. But I took a plane. This is the twenty-first century. Not the nineteenth."

"Some things haven't changed. Like the sun."

"I stowed aboard in the cargo hold. Sure, it's cold. But I sleep most of the way. And the ear-popping wakes me up before the landing."

"What ear-popping?"

"You've never flown. It's very convenient. I don't think I've taken a ship since I moved away from you and Dru."

"What if it lands during the daytime?"

"I have my umbrella to shade me. I may get some weird looks from the ground crew when I walk out of the belly of the plane. But I'm gone before they security guards can catch me. But back to Hilda. You know who I blame for taking away her humanity? Buffy. When I was scouting, I could hear her talking to the girl. Telling her had been given this great gift, this incredible responsibility. Like it's all about empowerment and Grrls Kick Ass neo-feminism. What about the dark side? Before Buffy met Hilda, she had her whole life to look forward to. The night after Buffy leaves, she's dead. And all because of Buffy. Someone has to make her feel responsible for killing all these girls."

Spike can see the twinkle of inspiration in Devlin's eyes. "You wanna make Buffy suffer. Trust me Dev, she already has. More than you can possibly imagine."

"Very interesting." Devlin thinks about this. "Suffering usually gives a person depth, complexity, doubt. Healthy human traits. I saw none of that. I saw a person who was completely and utterly sure of her power and her righteousness. You're telling me she wasn't always like that?"

"I'm telling you that you don't know a bloody thing about Buffy. You've read her all her wrong, Dev."

"Or, she's changed since you last saw her. Was that before or after the mass Slayer mobilization?"

"During."

"Was there a pressing reason for that? Or was it just a Slayer good, more Slayers better' calculation?"

"Just a little idea she had to save all the girls parked on the Hellmouth."

"Then why not just give them the upgrade?"

"I'm not sure the mojo works like that."

"So it was just a positive side effect. One which I can turn negative. More Slayers fighting means more vampires killed. But it also means more Slayers dying. Buffy will never see the people these girls saved. But she will see the dead girls. And she'll know they're dead because of her. That's a tough burden for anyone with a conscience to bear. Gotta love the irony, though. She's providing them with the very fate she once feared. Soon enough, every time she activates a new Slayer, she'll have to wonder, am I giving this girl a death sentence'?"

"You've put a lot of thought into this. It's as if you hold some sort of grudge cuz she's hurt you."

"Impossible. We've never even really met. But I'm always on the lookout for targets. And right now, she's the biggest one by far. You have no idea what it's like out there. The vampires are running scared. It feels like Slayers are around every corner. Nothing but fear and cowering and confusion among our kind. All of a sudden, we're the underdogs. Buffy's the hyperpower. She's Rome. I'd like to be her Hannibal."

"Hannibal lost."

"After seventeen years of fighting, and hundreds of thousands of deaths. I think Buffy's more sensitive to casualties than the Romans were. They're horribly overextended, you know. Scores of inexperienced Slayers roaming the globe. More than she could ever hope to protect. So many chances to hurt her without giving her a chance to hurt me. How could I resist?"

"And your girlfriend?"

"She'll outgrow me. Hopefully not for a year or two. These human-vampire relationships never last forever. She grows up. I can't. I just want to make sure she gets the chance. And I'll have plenty of fun with her in the meantime."

"How unbelievably noble and unselfish of you. Emphasis on unbelievable. Cuz I don't believe you."

"What can I say? Life's a lot more fun when you have something worth dying for."

"You're preaching to the bloody choirmaster."

"I knew you'd understand. Life's nothing without passion. And she's mine."

"I bet it doesn't hurt that helping Deb get what she wants means giving Buffy the finger."

"There's so much more to it than that. I feel like we were meant to be. I felt it the moment I saw her. Guess timing really is everything. I show up a week earlier, or a day later, and we might never have met. There's no fate. No destiny. Just chances. You miss one, you never get it back. Speaking of missed chances, how come you're six thousand miles from Buffy? Why did you two split?"

"Cuz I died. That kind of put an end to things."

"It should have also put an end to you. Care to explain?"

"For starters, it wusn't your ordinary death. I got roasted while saving the world and closing the Hellmouth."

"You did that? My sire made the giant crater? That is so cool! An entire town forever wiped off the face of the earth. You're like Vesuvius! I'm proud of you, dad. Hate to say it, but I am. How'd you pull it off?"

"There was a necklace with a large crystal hanging from it. I put it on, and my soul saved the day."

"That's some kickass bling-bling. But how did you get your body back?"

"About three weeks later, the necklace was sent to LA and I popped out of it."

"Like a genie."

"More like a ghost. Had to make do for four months before I got my body back."

"How charming. In a vaguely derivative sense. Has Buffy taken up pottery? You, her, a little Unchained Melody'? You're telling me it never crossed your mind?"

"If that's a Ghost' reference, sorry, but I never saw it."

"Lucky you. It had this depressing ending where good triumphs over evil. But it sounds to me like you never actually died. You just got sucked into the mystical bling-bling you were wearing. And then you were sucked out of the mystical bling-bling, but without your molecules, which came later. In one form or another, you were always stuck on earth."

"Sounds plausible. If you hadn't left out the part where my flesh was burnt to a crisp."

"Obviously it didn't take," Dev quips. "So you save the day, but the girl ends up all alone. Damn, that is like the movie. Except, if he got a second chance, I don't think it would have taken her long to jump his bones. That's how it is when you love somebody."

"She doesn't know I'm back. And, once again, you don't have a bloody clue what you're talking about."

"Is there a Curse? You know, like Angel's?"

"I earned my soul. He didn't."

"You were in a better position to negotiate the terms of the deal. Which is why you can do what he can't. Or, who he can't, as the case may be. To me, that sounds like an insurmountable competitive advantage. Provided, of course, that she loved you instead of him."

"If you're trying to get me on your side, don't bother. You can't."

"I know. I just wanted to make a few observations that I'm sure have already occurred to you. You're a very big man, working with Angel even though he has the heart of the woman you love."

"So you want to get on my nerves. Tease me into a fight to the death. Is that it?"

"Spike, you're my sire. Killing you would be like nullifying my own existence. And it would be the height of ingratitude. I love you like a father. You know that."

"I also know that, in my world, killing your parents is the norm."

"How depressingly Oedipal. I'm more comfortable with an absentee father than a dead father. Much like Buffy. And Dawn. How did you two get along? Did she go crazy for you, like all the other young girls you've met?"

"If by crazy you mean that she wanted me dead, then yes."

"That surprises me. A charming stud like you. A lonely girl like her. How could she resist? Not even a schoolgirl crush?"

"You're the one with the crush on a schoolgirl."

"Debbie is far more than a crush."

"Wasn't talking about Debbie."

"Then what the hell were you talking about?"

"Oh cum on, Dev. She's your enemy's sister. The perfect target. And you don't lay a fang on her."

"So what if I liked Dawn? I could never love her."

"Because of her big sis?"

"Because I could never be honest with her. You can't have love without that. There was so much I couldn't tell her. I'm sure there was plenty she felt she had to hide from me. I bet it's like that with everyone she meets. Dawn's a true exile. She doesn't fit in anywhere. It's tough being a despot's sibling. At least Napoleon gave his brothers kingdoms to rule over."

"No love without honesty? Does that mean you've told the whole truth about your bloody life to Deb?"

"I love her. I had to take that risk to make sure she loved me."

"I'm beginning to worry about this girl."

"I'm shocked. Buffy loved a mass murderer. How is this any different?"

"The difference is, you still are a mass murderer."

"Not since we met."

"Does she know that you're having fantasies about killing other Slayers? Or that you have no regrets about all the people you've already killed?"

"It's called living in the present."

"Funny thing about the present. It's always changing. This moment you're enjoying with your Slayer won't last forever. When it ends, it'll end badly for you. And it'll hurt like nothing you've ever felt before."

"So I should be a coward walk out before that can happen?"

"This isn't going to end well. And I don't just mean with Debbie."

"I forgot. I'm already doomed to be vanquished by the invincible Buffy. Do I strike you as the suicidal type?"

"Not yet. That's why you're here, holding off on fighting her. You're too smart not to know what you're getting yourself into. If you really love this girl, you won't risk dragging her down with you."

"The odds are against me. Something the two of us have in common." He pauses, puts down his empty cup and checks his watch. "Look at the time. Hate to keep my girl waiting. Oh look. It's that scene I told you about." Devlin leaves. Spike looks over his shoulder at Dev.

"Hope for your sake that I don't see you around."

"Don't worry. I'm not a big fan of L.A. Didn't think you were, either." He closes the door. Spike picks up the remote and is prepared to change the channel when he glances at the set. He drops the remote and stares at the screen. "Well isn't this bloody surreal."