AUTHOR'S NOTE Happy New Year, everyone! I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. This will probably be the last update for a while, as I'm getting ready to move to California for a few months and am going to be pretty busy. But I'll try to start posting again soon once I'm out there!

DISCLAIMER Don't own anyone. All belong to Joss and James.

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Chapter Eight: In Which Buffy, Willow, and Illyria are Exposed

Warehouse

"Where have you been?"

Spike turned to see a very upset Slayer glaring at him with her hands on her hips. He chuckled. "Worried about me, were you?"

"You have blood on your chin," Illyria noted.

Buffy's eyes flashed. "Do not tell me that you have been out there snacking on the citizens of Seattle!"

"He hasn't."

Buffy turned to Angel. "And how do you know?"

"Because it's not human blood," Angel explained quietly.

"Oh." Buffy's anger melted. "Well, what kind of blood is it?"

Angel remained silent, gazing at Spike. He recognized that smell. Spike must have been incredibly hungry to drink a rat's blood. But Angel wouldn't reveal Spike's dirty little secret.

Spike mumbled something about a stray dog before changing the subject. "I met a new friend while I was out. A girl. Got a bit riled up with me sneaking around looking for food outside her friend's apartment."

"She didn't find out you were a vampire, did she?" Willow asked.

Spike shrugged. "Don't think so."

"Good," Buffy said. "The last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves."

"Hate to break it to you, love, but whatever's happened to the world, I'm sure vampires are still around," Spike said.

"We need to find out what's happened to the world," Angel spoke up. Buffy nodded. Spike just glared at the two of them, then turned away.

He couldn't stand seeing the two of them not looking at each other like that. He had a soul too! Couldn't Buffy understand that? He had gone searching for it for her. He had died to save the world for her. This was his repayment? To watch her making puppy eyes at that poof?

He kicked a can across the floor, startling everyone. He settled himself into a corner just as the sun was about to come up. Willow looked on him with sympathy, while Buffy and Illyria paid him no heed at all.

"Come on girls," Buffy said an hour or so later. "It's time to go exploring."

Logan's Apartment

"You're certain?"

Max nodded. "Saw him with my own eyes."

Logan looked disgusted. "He was eating a rat?"

"Well, that's what I thought at first and that's what he said."

"But?"

Max dropped onto the couch. "But the rat was whole. It's not like he was ripping chunks of it out or anything. It was just…dead."

Logan looked unconcerned. "I'm sure it's nothing. Just a crazy homeless guy."

"But he wasn't! He wasn't homeless and he didn't seem crazy. He was British and he had the brightest fake blonde hair I've ever seen." Max got up from the couch hastily as Logan moved to join her. He sighed as she crossed the room and looked stubbornly out the window.

He got up from the couch again and walked to the kitchen. He'd forgotten how much he enjoyed walking. The exoskeleton was the greatest thing anyone had ever given him. And, being a trust fund baby, people had given him a lot.

"I should go," Max mumbled.

"Hey, wait!" Logan said as she neared the door. Max turned around. Logan opened his mouth, but closed it. "Just be careful, alright?"

She gave him a half-smile and nodded before leaving Logan alone again.

Checkpoint – Sector 3

"What is this?" Buffy complained. "I can't look around if they keep stopping me!"

She, Willow, and Illyria were stuck in a large crowd of people. Buffy quickly climbed onto a destroyed telephone booth to see police officers checking everyone who passed through the blockade they'd set up. She climbed back down. "This is ridiculous."

Illyria looked uncomfortable in the crowd of people. "The humans infect everything with their filth," she muttered.

"You're right," Buffy said dryly. "We should be able to find a way around this." She looked up. "Aha! Hey, uh, Illyria?" Illyria turned her head. "Do you think you could jump up there?" Buffy asked, pointing to the rooftop some fifteen feet above them.

"Simple."

"Good. Do you think you could carry Willow with you?"

"What?" Willow turned to Buffy. "Uh, I don't think that's such a good idea…" But before Willow could finish her argument, Illyria had commanded Willow to hold onto her neck and leapt easily onto the roof.

Buffy crouched, gathering Slayer strength in her legs, and sprang. "That's better," she said happily, once on the roof. "There are times when I really love being supergirl," she added with a grin.

Willow looked around. "Now where do we go?"

"Well, we could try to find downtown and work out from there."

"What's downtown?" Willow asked.

Buffy shrugged. "I don't know where else to start. It's not like we can walk up to someone and be all, 'Hey, what's happened to the world since 2004?'"

"HEY!"

Before the three women could move, they turned to see several cops fighting their way through the crowd to where they had just been, guns at the ready. "Stop or we'll shoot!"

Buffy turned to Willow and Illyria. "RUN!"

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The Answer to the Last Trivia Question

Anna got it right. Willow first used Ignis incende in "Buffy vs. Dracula" to start a fire in the grill. It then threw the elements out of whack, causing a thunderstorm.

Today's Trivia Question Is:

Why does Angel recognize the smell of rat's blood?

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Review Responses

LittleDrusilla Yeah, I never got into the Spuffy mood. I was always a huge fan of Buffy/Angel. And yay for Max and Logan all the way! Illyria will have much to do later on and the DA characters will have quite interesting reactions to her.

Anna I'm not sure Max has ever come across a vampire before. Perhaps she didn't sense him because she didn't know what she was feeling. Good job on the trivia!

Slash-a-holic Spike has some quite interesting run-ins with transgenics later…you'll just have to wait and see!

Goddessa39 Buffy/Angel shippers of the world unite! I find that there is an abundance of Spuffy fics out there and I just like BA better. ..sigh.. You got the trivia right! And I never watched season four of Angel, so I don't know much about Conner. He'll be mentioned here, but not an actual character.

Human28 Nah, I'm WAY too much of a Logan fan for it to be Max/Alec. But don't worry! Alec finds some lovin' later on.