Disclaimers: All the characters in this story belong to Joss Whedon.

Chapter 24: Seeing double.

Her speed was incredible as she charged up to him. All Spike saw was a flash of denim and a some form of wooden object as he was knocked to the floor. As she was about to stake him he caught her wrist and pushed her off him. He pulled himself up, looking very cross.

"What in the bleedin' hell are you doing? Have you gone completely carrot top!" he spat

Buffy folded her arms in defence, stake still in hand.

"I'm doing what I should of done all those years ago...I'm staking you," she stated

Spike raised his brow at her as if she was going crazy. Something was definitely different about her. Different clothes, definitely a different attitude and to top it all off she carried herself differently, with more confidence.

"Er hello love, not a vampire so that won't exactly work now, will it?"

"What? You actually expect me to believe that...ok where is it? did yopu magic it from somewhere?"

"Where's what?"

"The ring of Amara, you know that makes you invincible, allows you to walk around in the sun,"

His look kept getting more baffled and confused as she went on. Sighing, he looked at her with concern. This bowled Buffy over. Spike was concerned? What was going on.

"Buffy...are you feeling ok?" he questioned

Buffy huffed.

"Of course I'm fine , you idiot!"

She looked like she was going to hit him when Dawn and Vampire Spike came up behind her. Dawn looked confused and Vampire Spike raised a brow at the other him. Spike's looked of confusion deepened and he furrowed his brows as he saw the other him behind her. His lips parted as he studied the vampire.

"What...,"

The vampire looked the teen over, clearly freaked out by it.

"Well, I think it's fair to say that this doesn't happen everyday," Vampire Spike said

Buffy whirled around and scowled at him.

"Shut up!...(turns back to the other Buffy) look I'm tired of games, I will figure out how you're walking around in the sun and when I do-"

She was cut off by Giles coming out of the building and shouting towards the other Spike.

"William, is everything ok?"

The watcher stood by his son's side and now it was his turn to look baffled. Spike turned to his dad.

"I think you'd better sort your bloody slayer out Da, stupid chit thinks I'm a vampire!" he hushed

"You mean your not a vampire?" Dawn question, raised brow.

"NO! If I was I would be a big pile of dust right about now,"

Giles was flitting from Buffy to Dawn to Spike and then back to his son. He stood in between Spike and Buffy, stopping them from arguing any further.

A crowd had formed by the entrance of the school and at the steps. In that crowd was Harmony and Cordelia, eyes wide and mouth hung open.

"What a stud," the brunette stated

"I know...I had no idea Spike had a brother!" the blonde agreed

"We should carry on this conversation in the library...William,"

Spike rolled his eyes.

"How many times have I got to tell you? It's Spike now,"

The teen was so confused he couldn't believe it. There was another him, Buffy and Dawn. Little did any of them know what they were in for.

The teen was pacing the room. Giles was gathering some books, not that they would be any use in this situation and Buffy, Vampire Spike and Dawn sat around the table watching Spike pace like a panther. He came to a halt in front of himself and eyed his leather duster.

"Nice coat," he said casually

"Thanks...," the vampire replied

Buffy rolled her eyes and the brunette watched the two Spike's talk, not that they were doing much of that. Vampire Spike was freaked out by seeing a human version of himself but that was going to be nothing compared to how his teenage self was going to be like when he found out that not only Spike was a vampire that Spike had killed two slayers in the past century. He was now perched on the counter and Giles gave the bleach blonde a warning look and he just shrugged back at him. The watcher placed the books on the table and began questioning them.

"Well, first thing is first, how did you get here?" he questioned

The slayer answered first.

"A portal opened up and before you know it we were here, at the front of the school,"

Giles noted this down and the vampire interrupted him before he could speak.

"Don't take this the wrong way, not that I care if you do or not and not that I'm complainin' about this but...why the bleeding hell ain't I bursting into flames?"

The watcher and the teen turned their heads and stared at him in disbelief.

"Burst into flames? You are human are you not?" Giles queried, brow furrowed.

Vampire let out a soft chuckle and replied.

"I haven't been human in 99 years,"

The other Spike's eyes widened in horror as the reality hit him. In front of him was a vampire version of himself. He couldn't believe it. Giles was in utter shock as well and the trio watched the English men as they mulled this over.

"No, no, no," Spike repeated

The middle-aged man took off his glasses, cleaned them and put them back on.

"Show us," he asked him

The vampire sighed and stood face to face with the old man and gave a half smile before he put on his game face. This caused Giles to jump well away from him. Shock had overwhelmed him. His son was a vampire. Giles looked sick to the stomach.

"Oh dear god," he said, still staring at him

"SPIKE!" the slayer shouted

The vampire turned to her, looking visbly disappointed at having to put away his fangs but he did as he was told none the less. Human Spike hopped off the counter and carefully made his way over to his dad. Making sure he maintained a fair bit of distance between himself and the vampire.

"Dad..."

His eyes said it all. He felt like wrapping his son up into his arms and telling him it would all be ok but he felt like he was the one needing that extra bit of reassurance.

"I am ok W-Spike lets just carry on... (carefully goes back to the trio) can you er remember what you were doing and where you were before you were sent here?"

Dawn nodded and told him where she was. The teen kept on smiling sweetly at human Spike and he meekly smiled back. He couldn't stop looking at Spike, now scared of himself, of what he could do. Buffy explained that she and Spike were checking out some warehouse that he reckoned the vampires that were responsible for the train deaths were. All the while the watcher was making more notes, glancing nervously at the vampire as he went on. This annoyed him so much that he ended up snapping and saying "You're both acting like you've never seen a soddin' vampire before." that was when it came out that he had killed two slayers in the past 100 years and that Buffy should have been his third. Human Spike was angered by this but he kept his mouth shut.

A little while after, Giles and Spike had grown comfortable with vampire Spike. Dawn had gone off to take a look at the books. Buffy had always told her about the school library and everything that had transpired during her three years at the school. Buffy kept on sneaking looks at human Spike and he would smile back, which caused her to frown at him. The library door swung open and in walked Willow, Faith and Buffy. The girls stopped in their tracks as they saw them. Willow looked truly guilty, Buffy looked horrified and weirdly drawn to the vampire Spike. Faith on the other hand smiled wickedly at both Spike's.

"Ya'll gonna tell me what's goin' on?" Faith questioned

The eldest slayer stood up from her chair and was face to face with the brunette.

"What are you doing here, Faith?"

"I go to school here...man just look at you all 'Oh look at me I the queen of everyone' lose the attitude,"

Buffy scoffed.

"Me? Lose the attitude? Why don't you take a look at yourself!" she shouted

The younger Buffy stepped in between the two and pushed them away from each other. Faith stared at her cousin in disbelief

"Whoa and just whoa (turns to Buffy) Faith is my cousin, she isn't that bad (turns back to Faith) just stop and wait until Giles gives us an explanation,"

Vampire Spike was looking at the other Buffy. She was so different, shy looking. The brunette continued to stare at Buffy, who rolled her eyes and explained that she was the chosen one, destined to fight vampires and all demons. She seemed to take this all in so well and just nodded. Suddenly, human Spike blurted something out.

"I'm a vampire,"

"What? When? How?" the slayer panicked.

Oh my god! He's been bitten she thought. The bleach blonde teen pointed to the other him.

"Vampire,"

She slowly took herself away from the two girls and stood in front of the other Spike, staring him straight in the eye.

"Oh, uh... (faces Giles) Giles do you have any answers?"

The watcher shook his head.

"No,"

Willow had turned pale and was still looking very guilty. Giles noticed this and eyed her as she dragged her friend off, whispering in her ear, not realising that vampire Spike could hear everything.

"Buffy...I think this is the spell," she gulped

"What? You mean the spell that we did last night did this?" Buffy questioned

All the red head did was nod in response and now it was Buffy's turn to look guilty. Vampire Spike grinned.

"So what spell is that then girls?"

Both of them turned back to the group, guilty looks matching.

"Spell? What spell did you do exactly?" Giles frowned

Buffy fidgeted on the spot as Willow prepared to tell her watcher what they did.

"You see, we, including Tara did this spell...uh...it was meant to give Buffy a different perspective on things I had no idea this was going to happen I'm sorry Giles!" she squeaked

Now the watcher looked furious.

"How could you be so irresponsible! Playing with magiks when you have no experience with it!...I don't suppose you know the name of this spell?"

"No...this is so not what I wanted, I was just confused," Buffy bowed her head, sheepishly.

Spike watched in confusion as Giles told Buffy what he thought. He kind of felt sorry for her but then again, confused about what? Vampire Spike and the other Buffy look just about ready to kill her. It was because of her that they were there. Dawn had now joined the group and witnessed Faith flirting with human Spike and that she didn't like.

"It does not matter how confused you are about anything, you should never mess with magiks, unless you know what you are dealing with, I am thoroughly disappointed in both of you,"

Buffy was now standing by Giles and the other Buffy and she spoke softly.

"Listen, they are just kids and for what it's worth they know they've done wrong...give them a break,"

"Yes, you are quite right...anyway there is nothing we can do until we find out what sort of spell was used and what it was called, however in the meantime I have been instructed to let you all know that Principal Synder as requested that all 11th graders are to go to the hall,"

Here they sat. The whole of the 11th grade, waiting for this news that the principal had for them. The trio from a different dimension had been told to stay in the library, to avoid any questions that may pop up. Faith was disappointed at the fact that she had offered Spike a seat next to her but he had refused her and sat next to Buffy instead. So she moved over to sit next to Xander. Spike smiled.

"You okay, love?" he asked

"Yeah,"

"Good,"

All the students groaned as the troll walked in and stood up and the stage. He was shortly joined by Giles and Ms Calender. There was a microphone and stand up on the stage with him and he began to speak.

"Now I know you're all wondering why you are here...not that I am bothered but I won't make this last longer than it should, this year the talent show is slightly different, I'm not going to ask, I am telling you that each and every one of you WILL participate and if you do not then (chuckles) you will be expelled, so if any of you, especially Mr Giles are thinking that you aren't taking part, think again,"

Spike rolled his eyes and everyone turned to look at him. Synder coughed.

"I will hand it over to Ms Calender to explain how it will work,"

He handed her the microphone and she smiled at the students.

"Okay guys here it is, you will be split into two groups, males and females (students groan) I will be helping the girls and Mr Giles will be helping the boys (groaning continues) throughout the whole talent show there will be a panel of judges, myself, Mr Giles and Principal Synder,"

"What! You're kidding me right?!?" Angel shouted

"Mr O'connor, unless you want to go on report and face expulsion then if I were you I would be quiet," the principal added

Angel stopped shouted and looked embarrassed. Spike grinned to himself.

"The first round will be held on the 30th of November and out of that two people out of each category will be put through, the four that go through will be told who they are pairing up with to sing a duet or combine their acts, for example one sings and the other dances, this is their opportunity to shine further, but one person out of one duet could go through and the other could not or both people out of one duet could go through, this will take place on the 3rd of December,"

All the students looked horrified, mortified. Disbelief wasn't even in it.

"Then the people that go through will have to have a stand off and then we will decide who wins, ok that is about it, details of rehersals will be put up on the school notice board and don't forget, this is just a bit of fun!"

Talent show? Were they kidding? This could be very interesting.

So what do you think guys? Thanks for the reviews so far keep it up! In the reviews could you please leave ideas for songs or acts for some of the characters as i would like to see what you guys want to see them do e.g drusilla acting or Cordelia singing etc thanks guys!