STILL NIGHT THREE

Tara was smiling as she and the others of her tribe wandered into camp. She'd received a loud round of applause, both for her singing and her co-songwriting abilities. Almost all of them had pitched in on some aspects of the song, but it was agreed that Tara's singing had simply made it. First waking up with Willow, and now going to sleep with a whole lot of confidence…

Waking up with Willow. This brought back the issue of what Willow had seen, and why she had seen anything at all. Willow was never a reader. She still isn't, and to the best of Tara's knowledge of the future, she wouldn't ever be. This led Tara to the conclusion that Willow had reverse-remembered; she knew why Tara was no longer in Willow's life after a while. And judging by the awkwardness of Willow after the fact, it was probably not a pleasant experience.

Oz had gone off and become all wolfy again, but Kennedy was around. She wasn't looking very happy, but then no one really was; they'd won immunity, sure, but none of them wanted to be there. The million dollars was a plus, but was staying there for another month a good thing or a setback? Tara wanted to say something to Kennedy and Oz, just to let them know that nothing had happened and that they could rest assured that Willow was fair game here.

…Um. Maybe she didn't want to let them know that.

Buffy and Spike were deep in conversation, standing by the beach. They were spending a significant amount of time together. It was understandable that they would get along, now that Spike had a soul; they had quite a bit in common. They were both superstrong, both very intelligent, and both endlessly attracted to one another for some reason. They had hung back from the rest of the pack as they had wandered back from the challenge arena. Xander had been fighting with the idea the entire time, and turned back more than once only to open his mouth, close it again, and storm off, disgusted with himself for caring and for lacking the courage to care properly.

Now they were discussing the future/past. They both knew what was going to happen, but it hadn't happened yet in their timeline.

"I don't know, Spike," Buffy sighed exasperatedly.

"I'm not trying to push you into an answer, love, but it's been on my mind."

"I know. Mine too."

"No it hasn't, but thanks for saying."

"Well, there you go again. You're putting words in my mouth. That's what you did. Or… are going to do. That's what you'll say. And I'll have to run away and not argue with you because you're busy saving me. …Uh, the world."

"I'm not putting words in your mouth. I can read you. I watch, remember?"

"If you can read me so well, then why are you asking me if I meant it?"

"Because I see the way you look at Angel all the time. You do love him, Buffy. It's in your eyes and in your heart and all over your sodding face, even when he's not around. But I only see a look of lust on you. When I'm around, your heart beats faster, but that's all I notice." Spike smirked. "Well, almost all I notice."

"See? Angel doesn't make crude comments like that."

"Admit it, Slayer, you enjoy the comments. You enjoy the stares. That much is clear even without your admission of it."

"Did I miss a page? When did this conversation stop being about us and become about… us?"

The fire in Spike's eyes receded and became the gentle spark that Buffy found she truly enjoyed. "Right. Sorry."

Buffy sighed. "Angel was my first love. Part of me will always love him. Every time I see him I instantly remember the time we spent together in each others' arms. That doesn't mean I'll always want him. He and I have this relationship that we'll never forfeit as long as we're alive. And maybe someday, if there's a way, we'll rekindle that relationship. That doesn't mean I'm incapable of falling in love with other people in the meantime."

"So you're saying that even if we did fall into a relationship, you'll likely leave me for him eventually anyway."

"Oh my God. What did I just say about putting words in my mouth? I said someday, Spike. And maybe. Did you not catch those variable words in there?"

"So it's possible that your current love isn't for him."

"Yes! Exactly. Thank God."

"So you do have love right now."

"Spike. Stop. Putting. Words. In. My. M—" Her words were abruptly cut off by a gentle kiss from the vampire. Buffy's breath caught in her throat and she simply stood, unsure of how to respond. After a second, Spike pulled away and waited patiently for Buffy to recover.

"You have to admit that there's something here beyond lust, Buffy."

"There is. There's something. I've never denied that. I just don't know if I love you."

Spike nodded slowly. "Then it's clear to me that you don't. If you did, you'd know." He glanced at the sky. "I'd better head out before I get all crispy-like. I'll check on the wolf before I turn in. See you later?"

Buffy nodded slowly and watched as Spike smiled at her and walked into the woods without a second glance. Knowing the future was complicated. Knowing the past was complicated. Buffy decided to call it even and say that the present was complicated enough. She trudged slowly up to the fire pit, around which everyone was sitting and pretending not to have been watching the best entertainment they had on the island: their very own soap program.

"Where's Wes?" Buffy asked as she sat down.

"We sent him and Xander off to get more firewood. They were both restless, and neither of them seemed very comfortable with watching… um…" Dawn stopped and tried to think up a cover story too late. "…the sky! For airplanes. To come rescue us," she finished lamely.

"Oh," Buffy said, not noticing Dawn's response. She looked around and saw that only she, Dawn, Tara and Kennedy were still here. The men were all off in the woods somewhere. As what Dawn had said sunk in, she realized that everyone had been watching her and Spike down by the ocean. This was partial annoyance and partial relief for Buffy, as she now felt free to ask for their opinion. "Um, guys… what do you think I should do?"

"About what?" Dawn asked innocently. Buffy rolled her eyes at her sister to let her know she wasn't quite that stupid. Slow, maybe, but not stupid.

"Hey, you're asking the wrong crowd here," Kennedy pointed out. "Two lesbians and a seventeen year old who's never had a boyfriend."

"I have so!" Dawn said defensively.

"Who was alive?" Buffy asked.

"Well… no."

"And I find it appalling you call Justin a boyfriend. You made out with him before you killed him."

"That counts!"

"It does not."

"It pretty much sums up your relationship with Angel."

"It does not! …And it wasn't all in one day! Besides, Angel and I were much more epic than that. I loved Angel. And I stabbed him with a sword instead of letting him fall on a pencil I was holding."

"Are you dissing my dusting?"

"You're dissing my relationships!"

"You asked!"

And so on, and so on.

DAY THREE

"Got the mail," Faith's husky voice announced as the sun rose. The tribe had only just gotten back from council a half hour before; a quick meal seemed in order before they turned in for a few hours of sleep. Faith, restless from not being allowed to slay, decided to go for a run instead. She wanted so bad just to find Billy Idol and shove a stake through his chest, but instead she went for a run. It disgusted her, and yet she was somehow proud of herself.

"Good," came Angel's muffled voice. "What's it say?"

"Apparently the moron moved the reward challenge up to tonight because of scheduling problems." She gave a slight burst of laughter. "It actually says 'the moron' on here. Either old Jeff got a reality check, or the producers are getting as cheesed off as we are."

Angel grumbled something that Faith couldn't hear through the leaf. "What was that?"

"It's just… challenges take a lot of energy, and… there's nothing… really… to eat."

"The other tribe has boars," Willow added helpfully from the fire pit.

"What! That's pig! I can eat pig. Why don't we have pig?"

"We do," came Giles' soft voice from the woods. A boar was draped around his shoulders. His white muscle shirt was tattered in a lot of places, and his hair was pretty wild, but he was Giles. He looked around the beach and tried to place the vampire's voice. Giles smiled dimly, took the pointed silence for what it was, and dropped the boar in front of the leaf. He stood so that his shadow fell across most of Angel's hunched form. Angel's hand creeped out from under the leaf and brought the boar under his shelter. Rather unfortunate slurping noises promptly ensued. Willow and Faith made faces, while Giles simply pretended not to notice. "Where are the others?" he asked, still very quiet.

"Riley's swimming," Cordelia said immediately as she came out of the woods. She seemed very happy about the idea of Riley swimming. Or maybe it was the idea of Riley shirtless.

"And Anya went storming into the woods, rattling on about something. I didn't listen," Faith provided.

"Believe me, you didn't want to know," Willow muttered. Giles didn't react.

"Might I speak with Angel alone for a spell?" he asked, still in that strangely quiet monotone voice. The three girls exchanged looks and decided to wander down to the beach. Giles stared at the makeshift vampire shelter and looked pretty angry.

"You should have voted me off."

"It was discussed."

"Then why wasn't it done?"

"Because you're an asset, Giles. In case you haven't noticed, you're our only source of food right now. You catch fish. You even brought me food."

"I don't care. You're all in danger at night, you especially."

"I'll risk it."

"You shouldn't."

"Listen. Rupert and Ripper are not the same people anymore. You may have been at one time, but as it is now, one is always dormant while the other is dominant. I know exactly what that's like. No one here blames you for Ripper. When you walked in here, no one looked at you twice. We all knew you were Giles, and we all immediately respected you for it. I'm doing my best at keeping Ripper in check. As soon as he's struck, you get knocked unconscious. He does too. And then you're both out until morning. If I have to do that every night after challenges, I will. But right now, you're our most important asset. Ripper is, too. And Drusilla was exactly the opposite of that. She wanted to go. She had to go."

Giles didn't say anything. He simply stood and fumed for a minute. He opened and closed his mouth once or twice. "This island is going to have some effect on you eventually. You won't always be able to keep me in check. And in the unlikely event that you get voted off before I, something terrible may happen. I don't want to risk that."

"Neither do I. But everyone on this tribe understands that if I go before you, we wouldn't be in a good place."

"And if you get dusted?"

"Unlikely."

"Oh, come, now. Aren't we being a bit blasé about this?"

Anya emerged from the woods just as Giles finished saying that. She looked from the ragged man to the empty space in front of him to which he seemed to be talking, and back to Giles. There only seemed to be a great green lump on the ground and little else. Anya tried to compute this for a few moments before walking down the beach toward the others and proclaiming, "I think Giles forgot to not be crazy again."

"I'm not being blasé," Angel continued without a beat. "This game is rigged so that it's impossible for me to be dusted. Otherwise it wouldn't be a fair competition. Three vampires equals three drops in ratings if they get dead. Even on the Creatures of the Night channel, no one wants to see vamps get dusted. If you're that worried, go ahead and try to quit. But think: do you really want to forfeit a chance at one million dollars?"

"If it means that the people I care about are in no danger, then yes."

"This island is beyond evil. You may end up being a protector. You're as good as team leader during the day when I can't be. We exchange. These people trust you way more than they trust me. They're more likely to listen to you in a tight spot. I want you on this tribe, Giles. Whether or not you stay is up to you."

Giles stood again. He had no reasonable argument to that. Eventually he forfeit trying to come up with one and sat down on the sand beside the gigantic leaf. Angel could sense the relief from the younger man.

"You put out a theory earlier about this island being in a time flux. What led you to that conclusion?" Angel asked delicately as the carcass of the boar slowly slid back out from under the leaf.

Giles frowned at the question. "We're all in different time frames, but we each remember bits of future time frames. Time also doesn't seem to pass at a reasonably constant speed. It all seems to add up to time flux."

"What if I suggested that we were in a dimensional flux instead?"

Giles frowned. "Essentially, that's what a time flux is."

"No. Not entirely. A time flux means we've been sent to another dimension and are experiencing it differently. A dimensional flux provides a temporary dimension that's identical to one already being in use, but has our subconsciousnesses from the dimension we're supposed to be in."

"You're suggesting that this dimension was created simply for our presence, and as we leave one by one, we take away from the energy of the dimension until it disappears completely."

"More or less."

"Now, now. There's a concept. How did you come up with that?"

"Something Jeff said."

Giles exhaled sharply. "That burke."

Angel grinned under the leaf. The two older men continued to talk in a much more friendly fashion than either of them thought possible; their hidden murderers brought them closer together as people, they supposed. Riley in particular was surprised that they got along, and he raised an eyebrow at them as he walked out of the water.

"Are they… like, getting along? Because that's just weird to me."

"It's okay. Giles lost his uncrazy, which gives him and Angel lots in common," Anya informed him.

Willow clucked her tongue. "Giles isn't crazy."

"Sure he is," Anya said offhandedly. "Have we not noticed the homicidal tendencies?"

"You killed people for a living. Does that make you crazy?" Riley asked.

"Depends on your point of view," Faith interjected. "I might not be the poster child for stability, but I'm not crazy with the torture and the mass murder." She frowned as she remembered her future. "Yet."

"Everyone has an inner murderer," Willow said quietly. She frowned. "I… didn't mean to say that."

"Hey, that's right. Red's got a future in the world of homicide, doesn't she?" Faith said, with a tone of impression in her voice.

"Well! It's not like I'll be sane or anything."

"And it's not like I wasn't evil," Anya interjected.

"And it's not like mine wasn't an accident," Faith admitted. "Though maybe the ones in the future might not be."

"Wow, this is a fun conversation," Cordelia said sarcastically.

Faith smiled slowly. "Not so fast, Cordy. You've got some contribution here, too."

Cordelia tried not to blush as she glanced at Riley. "I'll be possessed by a god, okay?"

"Am I seriously the only one in this tribe who hasn't killed anyone?"

"It would seem that way," Anya said happily.

"Unless there's something you ain't telling us, soldier boy, you're the only one with a clean slate."

Riley's eyes shifted. "Wow. This makes me… more than slightly uncomfortable."

"Don't worry. Ripper's the only one currently evil. Well, Faith is a little, but we're not worrying about that," Anya said, still chipper. She seemed to be quite enjoying this conversation.

But Willow was frowning. She seemed to be making a connection. "Okay, okay. Wait. So let's assume for a second that Riley will kill someone—sorry, Riley, it's just for the sake of argument. That would make everyone on this tribe a murderer, including… and especially… Drusilla. But what about the other tribe? Maybe this is a competition for people who kill people."

They all thought for a second, making a silent poll.

"Actually," Faith said slowly. "With the exception of Spike, they're all pretty… innocent in comparison. I mean, the Wesley keeping a chick in a cage thing is pretty kinky, and Oz killing another werewolf is something, but other than that they look like angels while we look like devils."

"They designed it that way," Willow said, understanding. "There's one huge exception on both sides. Riley's the good guy here, and Spike's the bad guy there, but other than that… we're pretty much split."

A pause. Finally, Faith decided to voice what they're all thinking: "Dude, that's fucked up."