Authors Note: In my opinion, this is a F***in awesome chapter!!!!! The last line of it is one of the 'lines of the story' (a line which people will remember and which many large events of this story will revolve around, or which is a large event of the story itself). In my opinion, this chapter is up there with Chapter 8 - Renascence, and Chapter 19 - The Beginning of the End (the one with all the times)

Reply to reviews: Thanks Kelly for that great review.

Queen Bodeica: Go to the Authors Note at the end of this chapter to find out why there's no peephole. But make sure you read the chapter first.

Thanks to everyone else who's reviewed and given the great reviews.

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Chapter 23

Shock of a Lifetime

Slowly he started to feel the things around him again as he regained consciousness. His senses started to return to him. He could hear the sound of a large number of people nearby, and he could smell them too. His sense of touch came back with an itch on his forehead and he moved to scratch it, but something was keeping his arm back. It was then that he noticed that his arms were outstretched beside him, and that his back was along something hard and cold. He thought for a moment that he was lying down, but he knew that he was standing. He tried to move his arm again, but it was kept back again. He tried the other arm, but the same thing. He tried to move his legs, but they were held in place. He knew what had happened, but he didn't want to open his eyes to confirm it, but he knew he had to. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and he was met with the same darkness that he had been in for the majority of his life. He looked along his arm, and saw that it was bound to the wall with metal restraints. He looked to his legs, and saw the same thing there as well. Slowly, he took in his surroundings; it appeared to him that he was in a basement of some kind. Around him were supplies. Most of them seemed to be weapons of some kind.

"Hrmph. Good idea chaining up a vampire with weapons," Spike muttered to himself. He thought back to what had happened, the ruins of Sunnydale, the barrier surrounding the town now, the riders coming through the barrier and surrounding him. All of that had led him here, chained up against a stone wall, in an extremely large basement, with no idea what was going on. He pulled against his restraints, hoping that his vampiric strength would be enough to break them, but he doubted it. It was obvious that the riders, who had captured him knew what they were doing, and he was pretty sure that they'd make sure their restraints would be able to hold a vampire. He heard footsteps nearby, and he looked in the direction that they were coming from. He saw that there was a doorway not too far to his left, and the footsteps seemed to be coming from outside the doorway. He saw a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes enter the room and look straight at him. He looked straight into her eyes and he saw that she was sizing him up and taking in his demeanour. Spike watched as the girl turned and hurried out of the room. A couple of moments later, he heard a voice outside, almost shouting,

"He's awake. The vampire's awake." It was obvious that it was from the girl that had just come into the room.

About half a minute passed when Spike heard a number of footsteps coming towards him again, and he turned his head back to the doorway and saw a small group of women enter the room he was in. There was one that carried herself high and seemed to be the one in charge. She walked right up to him, and put her hand around the lower half of his face. Spike felt his head being turned to the left, and he resisted, but when he did, the grip the girl had around his jaw tightened and he could tell that she was extremely strong. He stopped resisting and his head was turned very roughly to the left, and then roughly to the right; the girl taking in his appearance. Spike watched as she let go of his jaw and stepped back.

"Is B still here?," the girl asked another one who was standing behind her.

"I think so," the other girl replied.

"Then go get her," the lead girl said. Spike watched as the girl walked out of the room. He turned back to the small group in front of him, and he took in the other people that were with the lead woman. He saw the blonde haired - blue eyed girl that had come in earlier, and he saw another woman with long auburn hair and haunting green eyes. He also saw a large man with black hair and the same haunting green eyes.

"Where am I?" Spike said to them for the first time. He was just met with silence as everyone in the room looked at him. He sized up the leading woman and he could tell that she was a fighter. He looked closely at the others, and he could tell that they were all fighters from the numerous scratches, bruises, gouges and lumps all over each of their bodies. It looked as if this group had just gotten out of a fight, but what Spike didn't know was that these people always looked like that these days.

It seemed that they'd been waiting an hour before Spike heard footsteps coming their way again. He got the shock of a lifetime when he saw who came through it. The first person who came through was the girl that had left before, but following closely on her heels was no one other than Buffy; Giles right behind her.

"What is it Faith? I've got to get back to my group. The First's closing in on our location and we've got to be ready to move," Buffy said looking straight at Faith. Spike remembered the name of Faith from somewhere, and it came back to him that she was the Rouge Slayer that had made it her job to screw Buffy's life up. He watched as the Rogue Slayer just pointed at him, and Buffy turned following Faith's gesture until she realised what she was looking at. With lightning speed, before Spike even knew what had happened, Buffy had stepped forward and delivered a hard backhand to Spike's right side, sending his head slamming back into the wall and to the left with sickening speed. By the time he had recovered, Buffy had a rather dangerous looking knife held at his throat.

"Is it really him?" Buffy said while looking directly at Spike, obviously talking to the other Slayer.

"I don't know, decided to leave that to you," Faith replied. Spike didn't know what they were talking about, but before he had the time to try and figure it out, Buffy had moved his duster to the side and hoisted up Spike's undershirt, showing his stomach.

"If you want…" Spike started, but was cut off as he felt a sharp hot pain on his stomach. Buffy had sliced the knife across his stomach, making a cut that wasn't shallow, but wasn't deep enough to do any damage.

"Red blood. It's him," Buffy said out loud. Spike saw that Buffy stepped away from him and brought herself so she was beside Faith. He noticed then that she looked so tired and worn out, and it hit him that that look was in all of them.

"Do you know what this means?" Spike heard the blonde girl that had first come into the room say. "The First needs the bloodline of Aurelius. This is their missing link."

"Which means Angelus will be coming down on this place with full force," Spike heard Buffy say.

"Oh shit," Faith swore. "Man, we just got this place set up. I don't want to have to move us… again." Spike didn't have a clue what was going on, but he knew that it was because of him.

"I'll go and tell everyone to start packing their things, and get Clifford and Cassia ready to take down the barrier," the blonde haired girl said to Faith. It was obvious to Spike, that for some reason she answered to Faith instead of Buffy. Spike watched as the girl headed out of the room.

"Skye, wait!" Buffy exclaimed. Spike turned and saw that the girl was coming back in the doorway. "I'll take him with me. Our group's already moving, it won't hurt to have him with us. This place is a fortress, and you can't just give it up that easily."

"Buffy…" Giles started.

"No, Giles, it's the best thing to do. We're moving out already. And maybe Willow can mask his presence," Buffy replied to him. Spike didn't have a clue what had happened over the last year, but obviously it was huge and had changed a lot of what was going on around the place.

"What's going on?" Spike asked, but his words only fell on deaf ears. He was worried about the cut along his stomach, it was bleeding a fair bit and he was losing a lot of blood and he would need some before long. It was the first time since the whole incident when he actually thought about blood and the hunger that had grown inside him.

"How are we going to get him across the city?" Giles asked Buffy. Spike watched as Buffy stopped and thought about it.

"I'll give you three of my people," Faith said. "That ought to be enough."

"What? Faith, no," Buffy replied. It was obvious to Spike that they were in a hot debate and that there were things going on here that he didn't have a clue about.

"Listen B. You need to keep him alive and out of The First's hands. You, Giles and the two potentials you brought with you can't do that. With my people, you'll have some fighting chance if anything happens," Faith started. Spike just watched the two Slayers stare off at each other, while the other people in the room started moving about. There was a long silence before anything was said.

"Okay," Buffy replied. "We'll bring your people back on our way out." Spike watched as everyone agreed and started to head out of the room.

"Does anyone want to fill me in?" Spike yelled after them, but no one took any notice. "And some blood would be nice!"

What seemed like an age, but was only really ten minutes later, Buffy, Giles, Faith and five other people returned to the room where Spike was being held. To his surprise, they brought a packet of blood with them. Spike watched as one of the people with them the restraints on Spike's right arm and put the packet of blood in his hand. Spike looked to the woman, who had stepped back. It clicked in his head that they were only letting him feed, and not letting him go. He put the packet of blood to his mouth and ripped it open with his teeth.

Moments later, when the blood was all gone, Spike looked to everyone who was in the room.

"Take weapons. You might need them," Faith said to Buffy.

"We can't. We're already taking some of your people," Buffy replied.

"Don't worry about it, we've got more than enough. We raided what's left of Wolfram and Hart just the other week, took all their weapons and supplies," Faith said to Buffy. Spike watched as Buffy just looked at Faith, and then moved over to a chest that was in the basement. He looked as she pulled out one of the weird weapons that shot crossbow bolts, and that the riders attacked him with. Spike watched as Buffy pulled a piece of metal that was sticking out of the side of the weapon back and there was a loud click. "They're already fully loaded," Faith said. Buffy turned to the others that had entered the room.

"Load up," she said to all of them. Spike watched as Buffy walked up to him and undid his restraints. "Try anything and you're dust," she said to him harshly before shoving him out the door.

Twenty minutes later, Spike was standing in a large open room, with Buffy and her small group of followers standing around her. Spike looked around at everyone, they were all armed to the teeth. Spike had seen all five people accompanying Giles and Buffy strap knives to themselves under their clothes. They all carried one of the strange arrow shooting weapons, and three of them had swords strapped to their backs. They were all just standing around, waiting for something. While they had escorted Spike to where they were now, he saw a multitude of things that he'd never expected. The building he was in was huge and it was obviously filled with people. He turned as he heard footsteps hurrying in their direction. He turned to see short blonde girl coming up to them.

"Buffy, the barrier's down," the girl said to Buffy.

"Thanks Cass. I appreciate it," Buffy replied to her.

"No problem," the girl replied. "Just make sure you get back safely." Spike watched as the girl looked at them. He was brought out of his wonderings as something was pushed into his back.

"Move," he heard someone command from behind him. Spike looked towards where he was getting prodded towards and he saw that Buffy and the others were already moving towards two large double doors that obviously led outside. He watched as Buffy pushed the doors open, and he saw a grey sky in front of him. He followed the others outside, and he got another shock as he looked at the sight before him. They were on the top of a hill, and in front of them lay a city in ruins. There was various fires that he could see, and buildings in rubble.

"What is this place?" Spike asked. He saw the girl beside him just look at him weirdly.

"You don't know this place?" she asked him. Spike looked to her and he knew that she could tell that he honestly didn't know where he was. "This is LA," she answered after a moment.

"Let's go, we don't have many hours of sunlight left," Buffy said. As one, the people around him started to move, and Spike did the only thing he could; followed along. He noticed that after a block or so of walking, that the people around him weren't even paying any attention to him. He had expected them all to be on alert for him to try something, but he noticed that they were all busy scanning the spaces around them, and that their weapons were pointing outwards to the streets around them, instead of inwards at him.

Ever since the events of the previous day, Xander had been feeling different. He had felt like something had opened up inside him, something that was there and dormant for a long time. He had been thinking about it a lot when he could, so much that he didn't get any sleep that night, although, he thought, who could blame him. They had just been attacked by vampires, and a friend had just turned up out of no where after being gone for years, bringing all these people with him. There were vampires on the loose that could kick both Buffy and Faith's asses. The Hellmouth was open, and he was still a bit shook up about seeing the ghosts of Principal Flutie and Snyder about a week ago. (Reference - War Cries - Chapter 6 - Old Ghosts, New Problems (Part 1)). As he thought about it more, he realised that the feelings he had been having had been around longer than one day. He couldn't pinpoint when it had started, but he knew that it had been around a long time. And now, as he walked to the Summers' living room to hear what Oz and his group had to say about themselves, he had the distinct feeling that something life changing was going to happen. He didn't have a clue what it was going to be, but he knew that something huge was going to happen.

It was hard being in this place. Ever since they had arrived in the town, things had been barraging her senses left, right and centre. She knew that Oz knew these people, and that he said that they were good, but Nicola had serious doubts about that. There was something dark about the brunette girl that Oz told them was the other Slayer; Faith. There was something about her that was unstable. And the red haired witch, Willow. Nicola didn't know where to begin about her. There was a huge darkness about her, and she was also unstable and Nicola knew that something was about to happen with her; she was about to lose control, and Nicola knew that that couldn't be a good thing. A normal witch losing control was bad enough, but Nicola had sensed the power that was radiating off of the girl, and she knew that the results could be disastrous. She couldn't believe that the Slayer was harbouring this witch; they'd heard of this situation time and time again. The witch abused magick and didn't use it properly, and the rush of power ended up overtaking them until they needed more and more and they'd do anything to keep it up. These were junkies. It was that easy, they were magick junkies, and Nicola knew that Willow was one of them. She was pent up, just waiting to explode, and from the darkness inside the girl that Nicola had sensed, she knew that putting that together with a magickal outburst would be bad.

As they were sitting around the lounge room, discussing what was going on, trying to explain to Buffy that Syophers were called Syophers, not Seeophers, Nicola actually felt a bit sorry for Willow. She could tell that Willow was an intelligent girl, and that essentially she was good. From what she could remember Oz saying about her, she was apparently a remarkable person, but now looking at it, Nicola wasn't sure whether Oz was being unbiased or not. Everyone in their group knew that this girl was the love of Oz's life, or so he made it out to be, and Nicola knew Oz, and she knew that he wouldn't fall for someone who wasn't worthy of him, and he had pretty high standards. She felt pity that someone who could have been great in life had to get affected by magick like this. But, Nicola's thoughts went spinning away from Willow in an instant, as a very powerful force unveiled itself to her. Nicola could sense it, a being of great power was nearby.

"Something's coming," she exclaimed to the rest of the group.

"What's coming Nicola?" she heard Brett ask.

"I don't know, but it's powerful, whatever it is," she replied. She closed her eyes and opened her mind and senses up. It was closer than she had anticipated. Whatever it was, it was just outside, standing on the road. She sensed that there was a large group of people with it, all with their own distinct signatures.

"Is it dangerous?" she heard Oz ask her. She sensed that some of these people were different than normal people somehow, she didn't have time to explore their energy signatures enough. She knew that this being, whatever it was had hidden itself from all of their senses, and that Nicola could only sense it now because it wished it so. She sensed three energy signatures moving towards the house.

"No, but it's extremely powerful, and it's right outside," she replied. She opened her eyes as she heard a knock on the front door. She watched as Buffy moved over to the door and opened it up, and she saw the shock on her face.

"We came to Sunnydale to enter into this game, and now we've got exactly what we've bargained for," Nicola thought as Willow moved towards the door.

Xander sat and he listened to everyone discussing the recent events. The feeling inside him that something was going to happen wasn't going away. It was screaming at him and his sense of urgency was just becoming larger and larger. He tried to get with it as one of the girls that had come with Oz explained that there was something coming, but he couldn't. Everything seemed like it was a dream; or that he was only looking in on everything as his body went about living his life. He heard the knock on the door, and he turned and saw Buffy open the door and just stare out it, dumbfounded. He was just about to get up and go and look when Willow walked past him, and he watched as the same look came across her face, more so than Buffy's. The feeling that was screaming at him from his insides was more powerful than ever now, and in just one instant, he felt alright again. He felt like himself. The dreamlike state he had been in disappeared, and Xander knew that he had to get up and sort out whatever was going on. He got up off the couch and went over to the doorway. That's when he got what was probably one of the biggest shocks of his lifetime. Xander saw people standing there. He looked to each one of them, who he thought he'd never see again.

" It's a trick, it's a trick," he heard Willow rasp, barely able to speak. It took a second or so before recognition came over him as he looked at the first person. It was Cordelia, but she had changed her appearance. Her hair was now longer, and there was something about her which he couldn't place. Beside her, stood a man who had changed so much, Xander didn't recognise him at first. His clean shaven and sharp British looks had gone, now replaced with a down and dirty look which suggested he'd seen too much. Behind them, he saw a person who he recognised, but it didn't register in his brain. It didn't make any sense at all. This person shouldn't be standing there with Wesley and Cordelia, but yet, she was. Finally, recognition swept through his brain and words came out of his mouth without him knowing so, or even hearing himself say it.

"Oh my god… Tara."

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Authors Note: Can you say Cliff hanger or what!

And, so, we've met Future Buffy and Future Faith. Things there will be explained, and all the crypticism (or whatever it's called) will be put in it's place in about 5-10 chapters or so. If you think that something lame along the lines of "Spike's gonna find out what happened in the future and then somehow get back to the present time and fix it all up" is gonna happen, then don't, because you're wrong. I wouldn't make the ending of this book that lame.

Queen Bodeica: There's no peephole in the door, because I've been planning this situation in my head since I Started Post Grave, and a peephole would just ruin the whole thing. Secondly, there's no peephole because I live in Australia, and I've never seen a peephole before in my life except on TV, and the thought never occurred to me.

Next chapter should be coming really soon.

Also, something amusing that I just noticed, that was purely by accident. Look at the names of the chapters and how they contradict each other. Chapter 18 - It Starts and Chapter 19 - The Beginning of the End. And then look at Chapter 20 -Too Late and Chapter 21 - Perfect Timing. Kinda cool aint it.

And next

Chapter 24 - Story Time

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Also, a question to the readers… Do you think I've got what it takes to write a novel. Currently, I'm only 17, but I've been thinking about it for a long time, and after I finish University (College), I would, at some point in time, like to write a novel and try to get it published. I was thinking something along the lines of a thief thing (like Ocean's Eleven, Entrapment, The Italian Job, etc.) where everything's not clear and after you've finished it, you're still left thinking. Or, something along the lines of Buffy (ie, vampires, witches etc). More along the lines of a coven of witches gets massacred by vampires, and the only survivor of the coven sets out to get revenge against the vampires.

Well, anyway. Do youse think I've got what it takes to be able to write a book and get it published?

Aussie.