They walked in an uneasy silence for a few moments Spike having taken up a position to the left of his slayer while the other walked sullenly on her right. 

“So,” he began, more to break the tension still clearly in existence between the two slayers than through any particular interest in the answer, “what happened in this world that puts you short one watcher?” 

This world’s slayer glared in disgust at the vampire before answering him, one word spat furiously, “Angelus.” 

“Angel?” Buffy asked in disbelief, “Angel killed Giles?” At the other girl’s curt nod she continued, “But how? I mean Spike was there, he kept Giles safe and then, later, he helped me stop Angel… I mean… Angelus from destroying the world.” 

Both slayers ignored Spike’s snort as Buffy corrected herself. 

“Spike?” his name was imbued with contempt and disbelief as it dripped from her tongue like poison, “Why would Spike help save a watcher?” The apparently permanently-angry girl looked at her other-world counterpart for a response, ignoring the existence of the vampire in question. 

“Spike and I had an agreement, we were trying to stop Angel,” she closed her eyes momentarily and resisted the urge to correct herself once more, “from destroying the world. Spike kept Giles safe by distracting Angelus until I could get there.” Somehow it didn’t hurt as much as it always had—thinking about the whole Acathla incident and sending Angel to hell was now more of a dull ache of regret than the agonising rift in her heart it had always been. “Your Spike… didn’t?” Buffy asked tentatively. 

“Spike was dust long before then,” the other slayer replied. “He had a whole bunch of kids, losers that worshiped vampires, held hostage. I tricked him; I caught Dru and used her to make him let them go and then I staked her… he went crazy, we fought, he lost. End of story,” she finished defensively when her counterpart looked at her like she had just grown an extra head or something. 

“You staked Dru after saying you’d let her go?” Buffy asked in disbelief, reaching out to place her hand on the arm of the softly growling vampire at her side. She wasn’t sure if she was trying to comfort him, or restrain him—maybe a little of both? 

“She was a vampire, an evil killing machine. I have no need to justify my actions to you… or anyone else for that matter.” 

“Right,” Buffy’s voice hardened, “So where’s your new Watcher? Wesley?” 

The other girl stared at her for a moment and then answered waspishly, “I don’t have a new Watcher. I’ve had three since Giles, and they’re all dead. Wesley lasted about a week before he got himself killed. After the third useless idiot got himself killed they stopped sending them.” 

Buffy couldn’t help but feel sorry for this girl, as cold and heartless as she appeared there was no mistaking the deep underlying hurt that coloured her tone. Was this what she would be without her watcher? Her friends? Was this how her life would have ended up if she hadn’t made that truce with Spike? She shuddered to think how close she had come to this, knowing that even as the other girl’s confession to having killed Dru despite her promise not to had disgusted her, it had done so mostly because the thought had crossed her own mind at the time; they were vampires why should she worry about to keeping her word to a filthy, soulless, murdering creature? She had realised, however that it mattered because it was her word. That was what was important, its importance wasn’t defined by who she gave it to, but by the giving of it in the first place. That was what made her so different from the creatures she fought every night. Except not so much, maybe, because Spike had always kept his word, hadn’t he? Buffy filed that away to think about some other time. 

The differences in this world compared to her own all seemed to stem from that moment, from something as simple as having removed Spike from the equation. Not that removing Spike was exactly an easy feat, she reflected with a smile.  

“And Angel? Did he get his soul back? Is he here?” Buffy asked suddenly, wondering if this world’s Angel had come back the same way hers had. 

“Yeah, Willow performed her little spell and made him all soul-having again. As if that changes anything, he’s still the same murdering bastard with a soul or without,” she answered, surprised to see the blonde vampire eagerly nodding his agreement. 

“But where is he?” Buffy asked, “Did he come back?” 

“He’s somewhere,” she replied evasively, “The powers that be or something like that sent him back here after I went to all the trouble of sending him to hell; where he belonged. As if the world hadn’t already had more than enough of Angelus. Cordelia and him hightailed it out of Sunnydale after I found out she’d been hiding him.” She shrugged, her lip curling into a sneer of disgust, “I hope he killed her, the stupid bitch.” 

“No,” Spike’s anguished cry cut off any response Buffy may have been going to make and she turned to see the vampire casting around in circles, his gameface sliding to the fore as he inhaled deeply. 

“Spike? What’s wrong?” Buffy asked frantically. 

“Scent’s gone,” Spike replied as he continued to search the night air for the familiar scent that had been there only moments before. In a swirl of leather he turned, retracing their steps in an effort to pick up the elusive scent once more. 

“Down here,” he called, golden eyes flashing furiously as he ripped the manhole cover off, quickly shedding the backpack as he prepared to jump down into the inky darkness. “This is where her scent disappears,” he added before dropping from sight. 

The stone, which up to that time had rested sedentary and lifeless against her heart suddenly began to glow, a strange warmth spreading outward from it as it pulsed to life.  

“Spike!” Buffy called urgently to her companion, her hand gripping the stone in an attempt to shield its warm radiating light. “Spike!” She called again more loudly, frantically trying to gain the vampire’s attention. When his head poked back through the sewer entrance she screamed urgently, “Hurry. Oh, god, Spike, I think she’s gone again.” 

Spike flew to his slayer’s side and as he engulfed her in his embrace they simultaneously spoke the words that would take them off this world and in pursuit of Dawn and her elusive kidnapper once again.  

tbc