A/N: Some of the dialogue and plot was taken directly from the season 7 episode 'Lessons.'

It felt weird to be sending her little sister off towards the place she destroyed. Though false memories clouded her mind, they all still felt real and meaningful, and it was hard to believe that Dawn was now in high school. The girl was excited, but Buffy couldn't stave off the dread building in her stomach. Something, and she admitted it could be remnants of her own high school experience, was making her instincts heighten and she had a bad feeling in the days leading up to Dawn's first day.

Standing in front of her now, the school looming behind, Buffy didn't want to let go. Even Spike had made fun of her the night before for getting teary eyed over it and though Dawn pretended to be humiliated by such a display of emotion, the girl couldn't help but be thrilled that Buffy was exhibiting such strong emotion in the first place. Now, however, in fear of being seen by her friends and those who she wanted to befriend, she was having none of it. Breaking out of Buffy's death grip, Dawn gave one last cheery wave and disappeared into the high school.

Buffy would have left had the principal not approached the two of them earlier, and assumed she was Dawn's mother. A guy that blind must be evil. The fact that he appeared to know of her didn't help his cause either. A place did not just happen to exist over a Hellmouth and not have wacky things happen. The new, too-young seeming principal seemed to be a good culprit of evil. Instead of going home like she should have, she waited until Dawn entered the building and followed.

Seeing Dawn slip around the corner, Buffy started the opposite way. She just wanted to check out a few things and her sister didn't need to know she was bearing on slightly overprotective. On patrol the night before, Spike had mentioned sneaking in and getting a look around then, but Buffy hadn't wanted to risk being caught, if only for Dawn's sake. After a stop in the bathroom to confirm that she didn't have 'mom hair' turned into some sort of ghost fest, she sprinted down the hallway to find an embarrassed Dawn sitting in class. She had left, only to tell Spike what had happened, but he hadn't been home and Buffy didn't want to wait, so she headed back to the high school.

The probably evil principal had stopped her and she considered questioning him further to check his evil factor, but when her phone rang and she saw it was Dawn, her attention wandered. Now she was in the basement, being attacked by angry, corporeal ghost-like people and unable to find her sister.

A voice, an echoing whisper in the eerie quiet drew her to the boiler room. It was familiar, she realized, as a tingling crept over the back of her neck and she knew who it was. Relief settled over her, realizing where Spike had decided to go for the day and she snickered, thinking of how much crap she was going to give him for mocking her the night before when he clearly couldn't contain his own nerves, when she found him mumbling in the corner to himself.

"Spike?"

He didn't answer, so she walked quickly over to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. When he turned, she blanched at his clouded eyes, but he shook his head and his expression cleared to one of confusion.

"Buffy?"

"What- What's going on?"

"Don't know, I- I came to the high school to check things out. Didn't have a good feeling and then-"

She waited for him to continue, but he didn't, so she tried to prod him.

"Then, what?"

"I don't know."

Spike leaned against the wall, looking away from her and frowning. The old Buffy would have attempted to shake him out of it in her impatience and frustration, but the new and improved version wanted to comfort him. Lifting her hand, she tried to think of the right words to say, when she heard a scream and they both took off after it.

Spike fought alongside Buffy, Dawn, and the chit's new friends, but as soon as everything settled and Buffy went to comfort her sister, the dread and confusion returned. He hadn't been lying when he said he didn't know what had happened. One second, he was surveying the high school and next thing he knew, he had fallen into a trance of sorts.

Buffy looked back at him as she led the group back up the stairs to safety, saying she would meet him back at home. He wanted to ask her to stay, to go back home with him through the sewers once she got her sister settled, but the words wouldn't leave his lips. With a shiver of unease, Spike made his way back through the basement to make his escape when he found Warren, the bastard who had almost done in Tara standing before him. That Willow had killed him did not cross Spike's mind as he was too consumed with anger. Charging at him, chip be damned, Spike cursed when he ran right through him and busted into the wall. Behind him, incorporeal Warren laughed. Spike turned back, vampire visage out, and glared.

"What are you?"

Warren said, "I'm beyond your understanding. More than flesh-"

Spike blinked and the man turned into Glory.

She said, "More than blood. I'm- You know, I honestly don't think there's a human word fabulous enough for me. Oh, my name will be on everyone's lips, assuming their lips haven't been torn off. But not just yet. That's alright though-"

Now Adam: "I can be patient. Everything is well within parameters. She's exactly where I want her to be. And so are you, Number 17. You're right where you belong."

The Mayor said, "So what'd you think? You'd get your soul back and everything'd be Jim Dandy? Soul's slipperier than a greased weasel. Why do you think I sold mine? Well, you probably thought you'd be your own man, and I respect that, but-"

Spike flinched, seeing Drusilla, who purred at him: "You never will. You'll always be mine. You'll always be in the dark with me, singing our little songs. You like our little songs, don't you? You've always liked them, right from the beginning. And that's where we're going-"

The Master faced him now, as ugly and as threatening as he remembered. He said, "Right back to the beginning. Not the Bang- Not the Word- The true beginning. The next few months are going to be quite a ride. And I think we're all going to learn something about ourselves in the process. You'll learn you're a pathetic schmuck, if it hasn't sunk in already. Look at you. Trying to do what's right, just like her. You still don't get it. It's not about right, not about wrong-"

As it shifted into the Slayer, Spike couldn't help but stare transfixed. He'd never seen her quite as intimidating. She looked at him, her eyes fierce, and when she spoke, her voice took him back to those darker months they shared when she was scared and cruel.

"It's about power."

The thing, whatever it was, exploded into dust and Spike took off running. He didn't stop as the walls of the school changed into the grimy ones of the sewers, pausing only briefly to pick up the blanket he'd left as he burst into the sunlight and stampeded back into the Summers' home, Buffy looking up at him, startled, from where she stood at the kitchen counter.

"What the-"

The blanket dropped at his feet and he went to her, his fingers reaching out to brush her cheek just to confirm that she was real. Instead of the flinch he expected, she leaned into it, only for a moment as she looked at him in confusion.

She tried again, "Are you alright?"

"There's something wrong."

"I'll say. You look like you've seen a ghost."

She wasn't wrong. In a way, he had, too many of them.

"I mean it, Buffy, there's something in that high school. It's not right."

"I noticed," she smiled. "I was there with you, remember? Taking down the baddies."

"No, I- I mean, after you left. It was- I don't bloody know what it was."

Buffy frowned as he stopped and looked away from her. They were both suddenly aware of their proximity and the intensity with which they were looking at each other.

"What did you see, Spike? Did something attack you?"

"Couldn't. They were- Incorporeal or something, but they looked so real."

"What did?"

"All of 'em."

"I-"

Spike opened his mouth to tell her everything, but he noticed the speed of her heart beat, the way she was looking at him, and he didn't want her to fear him, to think he'd lost it. She'd already found him in the basement moaning to himself.

"Was nothing."

"But- You're obviously shaken up about it, so let's talk."

"Later, then. I just- I need a moment, Slayer."

Before she could protest, he crossed the kitchen to the basement door, shut it behind him, bombed down the stairs, and sprawled out on his cot. She had been good about respecting his boundaries and he'd been so caught up in his own thoughts that Spike didn't realize she followed him down the stairs until he looked up to find her glaring at him.

Sitting up, he looked at her, finding that fierceness in her gaze. She lifted her hand and he expected a jab, but instead, she took his hand and sat next to him. Rather than the cruel tone that had lashed out at him in the school basement, she spoke in a calming whisper that he couldn't deny.

"Tell me."

So he did, and hoped she didn't kick him out of the house after the fact.

So much for thinking the high school badness could be chocked up to a few angry ghost-men. She would be lying if she said what Spike had told her hadn't freaked her out, because it did, to the max. He couldn't look at her as he spewed the words out, thinking hard as though trying to remember every vivid detail and word, but when he finished, he looked at her, a brave expression on his face, daring her to question him.

He didn't ask her what she thought it all meant because they both knew neither had a clue. It was the sort of thing Giles would devour, had he been there, and she knew she would have to call him later, force Spike to rehash it again, but right now, she couldn't be so cruel. His hand in hers was trembling.

That it happened to Spike, her bold and pompous fighting partner, unsettled her more. Whatever it was had shaken him without touch. Spike, though a stellar fighter, was prone to be taken down more easily with words, but she knew it was more than his insecurities. There was something out there, after her and after him, as was so frequently the case. That it was waiting in the high school, she almost laughed, because of course. If it were going back to the beginning then, that was her beginning.

Buffy felt Spike's hand slip from hers as he drifted into sleep. She smirked, watching as his head hit the pillow, but when she tried to get up, he grumbled and reached out to her. Lying down beside him, she turned so that she was facing him. Watching him, she couldn't help but accept the fear rising in her at this new threat and all the unknown that came with it. But there was also this warmth she couldn't define.

In time, a plan of action would have to be outlined. Buffy would have to put on her ultimate warrior pants and face whatever it was that was brewing. And despite the sullen and vulnerable vampire who lay beside her now, she knew, still gripping hands, somehow, it would be easier, they would be better, because they were fighting together.

Whether it had the power of Glory, Adam, the Master, or all of them combined, or if it turned into a smoke screen of nothing at all. Buffy couldn't help but think she had a better team: two powerful and trained witches who would soon be on their way home, a studious and daring Watcher, a thousand year-old demon who had seen and done it all, a mere mortal with the heart and bravery of a hero, an age-old mystical key, and a vampire with the fight of a demon and the heart of a man. And her, because Buffy was learning, she couldn't underestimate her powers, not when the world waited for her to save it.

From her spot, she heard the front door open and slam shut and footsteps thunder against the ceiling. Wanting to allow Spike his rest, Buffy sighed and got up from her spot, and met Dawn in the kitchen, who was apparently over the entire incident from earlier and ready to regal her with tales of the mundane high school experience.

Her refractory period really was something to admire.