"Another vampire?" Xander fumed. "Another one? Did you not learn your lesson the first time?" He demanded, rounding on his friend, who was slouched in one of the library's hard chairs. The younger Buffy had just opened her mouth to defend herself, to ask Xander how she could possibly know how she and the vampire who had tried to kill her countless times had become an item, when the doors swung open. She closed her mouth and pressed her lips together tightly as she watched her older self and Spike hesitantly enter the room.

Xander, who hadn't heard the doors open and didn't realise that their visitors had arrived, continued to rant.

"Spike doesn't even have a soul! I mean, let's not pretend I ever liked or trusted Dead Boy, but at least he had a soul. The only thing that's stopping future Spike killing us is some stupid chip in the head." Once again he turned on younger Buffy. "What were you thinking?"

Younger Buffy sat back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. She had been about to warn him to keep his mouth shut but all of a sudden she was feeling much less sympathetic.

"And what about her?" Xander continued, not waiting for an answer. "The other Buffy. How do we know she's not a vampire if she's sleeping with one?" Younger Buffy clenched her jaw and then, despite herself, had to bite back a smile when she saw her other self do the same.

"How do we know," Xander ploughed on. "That he hasn't turned her? How do we know she's not here to kill us?"

Giles and Willow emerged from behind one of the many bookcases, each carrying an enormous pile of books in their arms. Willow caught sight of the older Buffy and almost dropped her books. Giles nodded briefly in greeting and raised his voice slightly to say, "Hello Buffy."

Xander frowned. "Why are you saying hi to Buffy? She's been here for..." His eyes widened as he trailed off. "She's here, isn't she?"

Everyone nodded.

"How angry does she look?"

"Do you remember that time you accidentally pulled Mr Gordo's ear off?" Willow piped up.

Xander paled.

Buffy moved forwards to take a chair, pulling Spike along behind her. "I came here earlier in the sunlight, but you can feel my pulse if you really want to Xander." She said as she flopped down into a chair.

For a long moment Xander said nothing. His eyes flicked between the two Buffys, seemingly unable to comprehend what he was seeing. When he continued to stare at the Slayers and maintain his silence, Spike rolled his eyes and growled. "I know this is your best wet dream come true but try and say something."

Xander turned his glare on Spike, his cheeks flaming. Buffy braced herself for the tirade she knew was about to come, but at that moment Giles hurried to the table and dumped his armload of books down. "I think we should begin now." He said, his eyes on Xander.

"But-"

"You can yell at Spike later. For the moment we have work to do."

Xander flung himself down into a chair, looking deeply unhappy but holding his silence. Giles nodded in satisfaction and accepted more books off Willow before perching himself on the edge of the table. Willow took a seat next to the younger Buffy, still looking in amazement at her counterpart across the table. She was so engrossed in staring at her that when Giles started to speak she jumped a little before turning her attention to him, looking flustered.

"Firstly, we must keep this as secret as possible. That means we can't tell Cordelia or Oz." He looked first at Xander and then at Willow.

Xander scowled. "Why not? They're both part of the gang now."

"This is different from anything else we've encountered. A wrong word could put our futures or," He said, looking at Buffy and Spike. "Your present in jeopardy. If Buffy and Spike happen to let something slip, some major detail about the years to come, it could alter the future."

"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing." Buffy murmured.

Giles fixed her with a stern glare. "No, Buffy. You can't tell us anything we're not supposed to know."

"What if it saved lives?"

In the silence that followed, tension crackled in the air. Xander and Willow exchanged worried looks, both wondering if the lost lives referred to were theirs. Younger Buffy stared at the floor, her jaw clenched. No amount of information from the future could bring back what she had lost. Giles looked shaken but after a few moments he found his voice again. "No," He repeated, although this time his voice was less stern and more gentle. "Altering events, even tragedies, may appear to be good, but we don't know the kind of repercussion your actions may have. The negative consequences could be enormous. That's why none of us call tell Cordelia and Oz; we need to limit the chances of Buffy or Spike saying something they may later regret."

After the speech, Giles cleared his throat, eager to move the conversation to less morbid areas. He turned to Buffy and Spike. "Now, you two aren't going to help in the research-"

There was an instant uproar from the other three. "What?" Xander cried. "How come they get out of it?"

Giles sighed irritably. "Have you not listened to what I just said? Although it's night, I still don't feel comfortable with them being here. For all we know someone could walk in, and would you care to be the one to explain to them how Buffy has suddenly gained a twin?"

When no one answered, Giles turned back to Spike and Buffy. "As I was saying, you two won't be helping in the research but I do need some information from you. How exactly did you come to be here?"

"You know this better than I do, love." Spike said, unable to contain the grin caused by the annoyance on Xander's face when he called Buffy "love".

"I don't know much more," Buffy said. "You only missed the beginning." She turned her eyes to Giles. "There was a necklace."

"A necklace?"

"Yeah. I don't know where it came from, it was just lying on the kitchen table. I got it out of the box and I felt like I had to put it on."

"That's when I showed up," Spike interjected. "I called to her but it was like she couldn't hear me."

"Then what?" Giles asked.

Buffy frowned. "I don't really remember much after that. Spike, could you?"

"'Course. I grabbed her but she still didn't pay any attention to me. When she put the necklace on everything in the kitchen exploded."

"I came around a bit after that," Buffy said slowly. "I thought everything was back to normal, but then everything went dark and we woke up in the cemetery here, in this time."

"Extraordinary," Giles murmured, sorting through the pile of books to find the one he wanted. "What did this necklace look like?"

"It had an enormous gem. It kept changing colour. It was…" She trailed off, struggling to remember. "Blue. At first. Then when I picked it up it changed to purple. A few seconds after that it changed again."

Spike leaned over the side of his chair and murmured something in Buffy's ear. Buffy nodded. "By the way, you might want to talk to Ms Calendar about some sort of memory spell."

The tension was back in the air again. Everyone looked at younger Buffy, whose fists were suddenly tightly clenched in her lap.

"What did I say?" Buffy asked.

"We can do fine without Ms Calendar." Younger Buffy replied quietly.

Buffy silently cursed her stupidity. Her anger with Jenny Calendar was a distant memory. She'd forgiven her long ago, before her death at the hands of Angelus, and now only remembered her as trying to help.

Giles lowered his eyes, suddenly far more intent on his book. "I'm sure as long as you're careful about what you say none of us should need a memory spell."

"It's not for you. It's for Angel."

"Angel?" Younger Buffy asked, now more interested in what her older self had to say than she had been all night.

"Yeah." Buffy grimaced. "We had to… tie him up. A little bit. It's probably best if he doesn't remember any of it."

"I'll look into it," Giles reassured her. "Why did you have to tie him up?"

"We ran into him almost as soon as we got here," Buffy said. "I was about to talk to him but Spike said he smelled different. I thought he'd lost his soul again so I-"

"Wait!" Younger Buffy burst out, sitting straight up in her seat. "Lost his soul again? Again? Does that mean he gets it back?"

Giles buried his face in his hands and Spike groaned. When Buffy realised her mistake she sighed. "Stupid Buffy." She whispered to herself.

Spike muttered under his breath as he managed to negotiate the final step of the flight of stairs that led down to Angel's apartment. Drusilla had been less than happy when he'd returned without her daddy in tow. She hadn't shouted at him but screeched as she'd stormed around the room flinging her precious dolls at the walls. She'd even torn the throat out of one unfortunate fledgling who had just happened to be standing nearby.

The raving and smashing everything up Spike could cope with. He'd watched calmly as Drusilla had systematically destroyed everything that lay in her path, not feeling moved in the slightest to go back out and hunt for Angel. But once it was over, once she had screamed herself hoarse, she'd crouched on the floor, cradled the remains of one of the broken dolls to her chest and began to sob. The tears did the trick every time. Watching her, Spike felt his long still heart twist violently in his chest and, despite his former resolve, he knew he had to do whatever he could to make his princess smile again.

Which was why he was once again scouring Sunnydale, determined to bring home the demon who made his nights a living – in a manner of speaking – hell. There were only two places left for him to look, and he was definitely not paying a visit to the Slayer's house. If the girl had peaches chained up in there then there was little he could do to help him, and nothing, not even Drusilla's tears, would move him to try. That left his grandsire's old apartment. He didn't have much hope that he would find him there, but if he couldn't bring him back then he wanted to be able to tell Dru that he tried everything.

Spike came to a halt in front of the door and reached his hand out to it. He pulled the handle down and gave the door a gentle push. It swung open easily, allowing him access to the apartment. Although he knew that the place was going to be deserted, he still entered the dark room cautiously. "Angel?" He called into the gloom. "Are you here, peaches?" He waited a few moments for a reply, not really expecting one. When nothing broke the silence he turned to leave, wondering idly if he should pay another visit to Willy to try to scare some useful information out of him.

Just as he was heading through the doorway, something reached his ears. A low groan, so soft that no human would have been able to hear it, but it made Spike jump in his chair as if a bucket of freezing water had been dumped over him. "Angel?" He murmured, more to himself than anyone else. He hastily backed up into the room again and began running a hand over the walls, searching for a light switch. After a few seconds of fumbling he found it and flipped it on.

As light flooded the room, illuminating his grandsire, he couldn't understand how he hadn't sensed him before. He was chained up only a few feet away, his head resting against the wall, his eyes shut. As Spike approached, his eyes flew open. "You're back, are you?" He grumbled. "Where is she? Still with her pathetic friends?"

Spike frowned. "What are you on about? I haven't already been here. And why are you tied up?"

Angelus rolled his eyes. "What's the matter, Spike? Scared all of a sudden? Feeling like the traitor you are? Well you can play dumb all you like, I'm still ripping your worthless head off your shoulders as soon as I'm free."

"Now, is that any way to talk to your rescuer?"

"Rescuer?" Angelus growled. "You-" He broke off suddenly, looking at Spike properly for the first time. "Why are you back in the chair?"

"Back in it? I haven't been out of it since your girlfriend dropped a sodding organ on me!"

Angelus closed his eyes and let out a groan of frustration. He wasn't sure what type of annoying game Spike was playing, but he preferred it when he was stomping on his arm. When he opened them again, they widened in shock. "Spike!" He began to call out a warning, but it was too late. Spike didn't even have time to turn. He felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and then everything was dark.

Buffy let the small marble statue in her hands fall to the ground. Spike looked down at his other self, a weary expression on his face. Angelus looked in amazement from the Spike slumped in the wheelchair to the Spike standing at Buffy's side. As he looked, a slow smile curved his lips. "I get it."

AN: Again, thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I really appreciate your opinions and encouragement. I'd like to clarify when this story is set. Buffy and Spike have travelled back to about the time when "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" is set. They've come from season six, from around the time when "Once More With Feeling" and "Tabula Rasa" are set. However, my season six deviates from cannon. Aside from the obvious (Spike and Buffy having a real relationship), Buffy, because of Spike's encouragement, tells her friends about being in heaven before OMWF and as a consequence Willow doesn't perform the memory spell in "Tabula Rasa".