Willow tried to hide her nerves as she somehow gulped down her dinner while staring nervously at the clock on the wall as if it were about to jump out and bite her.

"Tick tock, tick tock, tick..." it screamed at her fragile state.

Glancing around the room at the others she noticed slight glimpses of fear in their hard set jaws, evidence that they too were upset and on edge.

The silence began to threaten them as the ticking of the clock carried on and the unspoken topic hung in the air. It was too much to talk about, the lives of their friends and themselves.
It was just too unrealistic in their minds as they battled to cope with the situation.

"I need to go lie down," Buffy muttered as she pushed away her hardly touched food and ran out of the room as if by running she would escape the nightmare. Buffy wasn't the type of
person to run, Willow noted as her eyes followed her retreating back. If the slayer was so unsure that they would succeed what chance did they themselves have of hope?

"I'll go see if she's ok," Angel said as Buffy disappeared from sight.

"Listen, this is your last night before the battle so we won't do any more training. Just go and have some fun and i'll see you all in the morning," Morpheus said sighing, "Can you
please just not wreck the ship we'll need it to hold the party when we win," he smirked as he placed a small bottle on the table.

"Morpheus?" Neo replied in disbelief as he stared at the bottle of whisky.

"Let's just say I was holding onto it for a rainy day," He answered before leaving the room.

"Who wants to get pissed?" Spike asked, an evil glint appearing in his eye as he looked from the whisky to Willow and then to Neo, before his eyes rested on the bottle again.

***

"...And that's been my life up till now," Neo finished.

"You're a bloody laugh a minute aren't you mate," Spike replied. "All that doom and gloom."

"I think it's sweet," Willow argued, "He's like... like... Superman or something."

"Thank you madam," Neo said bowing, "And you're like... Sabrina. But without the whole airhead thing going on and you're cuter."

Willow began to blush and Spike scowled at the fact it wasn't him she was blushing at.

"I guess that makes me some psycho path that decides to kidnap Sabrina then." Spike replied.

"Nope, you ain't a psycho." Willow said, "More like... the joker in Batman."

"Can't be the joker, he dresses too bright for Spikey here." Neo added.

"Spike," Spike grunted.

"What about a cross between the Joker and Dracula and Batman."

"Gee thanks, now i've got an even weirder sense of dress." Spike moaned.

"Well what do you expect with what you wear? It's screams 'I'm evil!' not very happy looking either."

"Why should my clothing look happy? They're clothes, not some furry teddybear."

"Mr. Freeze!" Neo yelled.

"Why are you talking about films?" Willow asked.

"Because Spike looks like Mr.Freeze."

"No he doesn't, he looks like the Joker."

"No to that too, the Joker dresses too colourfully for Spike to look like him."

"Why do you dress like that? It screams 'I'm evil' and it's not very happy looking."

Spike just groaned and in reply Neo passed out on Spike's lap.

"Red," Spike said, "You know with you being so grateful with me for saving you. Well I thought maybe you could do this one little thing..."

He turned his head to find Willow lying sprawled out on the floor too. "Light weights," Spike muttered, "Just as I was gonna have some fun."

He threw Neo off his lap and picked Willow up off the floor, giving Neo one last look before aiming straight for Willow's room with a jaunt in his step.

Part 14

Willow groaned as she awakened, her head was banging and there was this awful vile feeling at the back of her throat. "Uhhh..." she managed to say as she tried to blink away the
sleep from her eyes. The room began to spin as she sat up before deciding against it. Letting her body fall back onto the bed, she threw her arms and legs across the bed, only to come
into contact with something *extremely* cold. "What the hell?" She mumbled as she looked over to see where the unwanted coldness had come from, seeing nothing as she was yet to
wake up fully and it was dark in the room, she did the first thing that came into her head. Willow kicked the thing.

A loud muffled yell came from it as her foot made contact. "What the bloody hell are you doing?" It said after a short pause.

Suddenly extremely awake, Willow shot up in the bed and flicked the switch on the lamp next to the bed.

"Spike?" She yelped.

"Gee that's a nice way to wake up," he replied sarcastically.

"Spike," she repeated, as a million thoughts raced through her head and lets just say none of them were PG-13ish thoughts.

"Yes luv," he answered with a lopsided grin.

"Did we? Oh my Goddess, I... you... we... erm-"

"Did we what?"

"Did we well... you know."

"Well..."

"Oh no, I never wanted it to be like this. I mean I can't even remember and I wanted it to be special-"

"No."

"Cause I really like you-NO?"

"No," he smirked.

"We-I"

"You really like me?"

"I...well-"

"You know, I like you too."

"You do?"

Willow was cut off as Spike kissed her and after a shocked pause she responded.

"I..."

"You know i'll stop now if this isn't what you want," he said before he started to kiss and nip at her throat.

"Stop? No, stopping is... bad. Especially while you're doing that thing with your teeth. No," she said with a little more conviction. "Don't stop, bad stop."

He cut her off again as he kissed her. She felt his tongue silently asking permission as it travelled over her lips. She allowed him access and then moaned as she felt his hand travel
down and lift up her shirt. His feather like touch across her stomach and then over her lace covered breasts began to arouse feelings in her that shocked her. Moving so that she was
now lying down on the bed, his arousal pressed against her, she moaned again and reached out for him.

He groaned as her small hand began to clasp around him. Spike's actions became more urgent and soon they were both lying naked on the bed. His mouth travelled down to her clit
and he parted the folds with his fingers, his tongue darting in and tasting her. Willow let out a small moan, and clutched the sheets as his tongue started to play with her, moving in
and out in irregular patterns. Soon his fingers took over as he felt her near, soaked with her juices they thrust in and out of her until her muscles spasmed around his fingers and she
came screaming his name. As her orgasm came down he continued to play with her until she began to near again. Kissing her forehead, he slowly entered her, already aroused by her
screams and moans. Slowly he began to thrust into her and she arched up to his thrusts, matching them with her own.

She soon came, fingers clutching at his back and screaming. He thrust into her a few more times until he came too, groaning her name. He collapsed next to her and pulled her.

"No regrets?" He asked her.

"Never," she replied sleepily as they both fell into slumber.

Part 15

"Willow! Willow!" Buffy shouted, thumping on the door, "It's time to get up."

Willow groaned and tried to roll over but Spike's hold on her was too strong.

"Come on Will! We got us some bad guys to kill."

"Just a second," she replied.

"Sorry I didn't hear that," Buffy yelled.

"I'm getting up," she yelled back.

"Spike," she mumbled trying to shake him.

"Yes luv," he replied groggily.

"We have to get up."

"Why? I'm comfy."

"The fight remember. You know, our ticket back to normality..."

"I don't remember liking normality, you know it's pretty good here."

"And what about the others?" She asked, her voice rising before she shoved him away. "You just want to let them die and this place taken over by them... them... evil things?"

"Would you get annoyed if I said no?"

Willow made some unidentifiable noise and threw her clothes on, giving him an evil glare before stamping out of the room.

"Pet," he called out, "You've forgotten your shoes."

He could hear her pause and look down at her feet before walking back into the room and forcing her pumps onto her feet, and then storming back out of the room.

Spike laughed softly before getting out of the bed, getting dressed and following her.

***

"You took your time," Buffy smirked. "Never known you to sleep in so long."

"I was... tired." She stuttered.

"Really."

"Morning hon," Spike drawled as he kissed Willow and sat down next to her.

Buffy's eyebrow shot up, "We need a little best friends talk later, *hon*," she drawled to Willow.

Willow blushed and sank lower into her seat.

"So is everybody ready now?" Morpheus asked, shaking his head slightly.

The others nodded in agreement.

"Well I guess we'd better get moving then, remember Neo and I will be here if anything goes wrong. If they break their side then Neo will be there straight away. While you're all
fighting we'll try and locate them."

"Thanks," Buffy smiled.

"Good luck," he said to them as they were transported into the Matrix.

Part 16

Buffy squinted up at the sun which was rising in the cloudless sky. "Giles would have hated living here, what with all the perfect weather and all," she thought.

Willow was staring anxiously at the weaponry that she had on her. "Do you really think we'll have time to use all this stuff?"

"Neo said we'd need it Pet," Spike replied, looking at a gun. "Though I have to say this is kinda cool."

"It'll be okay Willow," Angel said. "Just remember what you've learnt and you'll be home soon enough."

"With confidence like Angel's we'll be out of here in five minutes," Buffy replied rolling her eyes.

Two men appeared on top of the roof suddenly and the first walked over to them.

"Erm... what's he doing?" Spike asked.

"Ready to die?" The agent asked them.

"I think you are," Buffy replied grabbing her gun and aiming at the agent, catching him slightly off guard.

The agent tutted as he managed to just escape the bullets. "I thought you'd been training," he smirked.

They all started to shoot, taking the agents minds off talking as they started to shoot back. Willow nodded at Angel as she let off a small smoke grenade.

Angel ran around the back of the first agent through the smoke and managed to get within a good shooting distance when the second jumped on him.

Buffy screamed as Angel went down and somersaulted high in the air taking the agents attention back to her giving the others time to get Angel back onto his feet.

"Goodnight Ms Summers," a third agent said as he appeared and shot at her. Hearing the gunshot Spike shot at the third agent who appeared to be starting an early victory dance and
the agent went down. Willow seeing the agent go down, gulped and ran at him as Neo had instructed, entering his body and smashing it into pieces, feeding her with it's power.

"Whoa," she muttered.

The first agent looked over at Spike, "Bad doggy," he yelled. "We're gonna have to put you down." He raised his gun at Spike who was anxiously raising his gun back at him.

"Aww, aren't you gonna join me in hell?" Spike replied. "You know i'd be really hurt if I didn't have someone to torture."

Buffy appeared weakly behind the agent and shot at his head as Spike jumped away from the shot the agent managed to shoot before falling to the ground. "Nobody hurts Spike but
me," she roared before falling to the ground next to the agent.

Spike followed Willow's move and entered the first agents body taking his power.

"And I thought draining humans was good," he said.

Willow and Angel were firing at the second agent who was left. Realising he wasn't going to get very far the agent looked over at Buffy's body and ran over to it. Grabbing hold of her
he aimed his gun at her head.

"Now now, don't be in such a hurry to leave. I thought maybe we could all be friends. I mean, who says we can't just share the planet?" The agent asked the others.

"Maybe because we want to go home or maybe it's because scum like you don't deserve to live," Buffy said regaining some kind of consciousness.

"I really wouldn't be insulting a guy who has a gun pointed at your head," the agent smirked. "Unless I wanted to die that is."

Buffy scowled at him.

"Let her go," Willow said.

"Sorry but that's just not an option." The agent smiled.

Buffy reached slowly into her pocket searching for a weapon.

Glancing over at her, Angel realised what she was trying to do and started to yell at the agent trying to get him into conversation.

"Will you just shut up?" The agent yelled back.

"I think that's your turn," Buffy said plunging a knife into his heart.

The agent staggered backwards and raised his gun shooting at Buffy before he went down.

"Gee do y'all have to do that?" She muttered before falling to the ground again and into the agent's body draining his life.

"You ok?" Angel asked Buffy as he ran to her side.

"I'll be fine, well it's nothing a nice warm bath and some proper food won't do. Although my mom's credit card wouldn't go amiss. Or yours for a matter of fact, Cordy's talked a lot about
it. I could really do with a share of the retail fun."

"You can have it for a month as long as you let me get you to a hospital as soon as we get back."

"Guys I think we'd better get moving," Willow said as she looked at the dark clouds appearing overhead. "I think it's time to go get the others and go home."

"Let's get moving then." Buffy replied.

"But we don't know where they are," Angel said, confusion written all over his face.

"Oh yes we do," the others replied in unison.

"I guess I really should have had a go at that draining thing," Angel said shaking his head.

The others just looked at each other and laughed.

Part 17

It didn't take them long to find the others, Angel found out as the others led him straight to them and they were suddenly standing in front of his office, well it was his office but it was
an old and abandoned version. After they got inside after, getting rid of a few unwanted guards, found out it had been an investigations office for those who had lost pets.

"I guess they weren't as successful as you," Willow commented to him.

"I know, i'm trying to work out whether that's a good or bad thing," he replied.

"Willow?" Giles' voice called out.

"Giles! ...Where are you?" She asked looking around the room and seeing no sign of any doors.

"We're in here."

"And that's helpful," Spike commented.

"You know Angel, from the inside this place looks nothing like your office," Buffy said, noticing the lack of well... everything.

"Tell me about it," Cordy yelled out. "We've spent ages wondering around this place."

"Look they have to be in here somewhere it's-"Angel began.

"Listen," Willow butted in, "It sounds like their voices are coming from below."

Buffy bent down onto her hands and knees and began to bang at the floor, until it became extremely hollow-sounding and then began to remove the floor panels with the help of
Angel.

"How did you lot get down there?" She asked once they had removed the panels and found the others in a small concrete room below.

"If we knew don't you think we would have gotten out of here sooner?" Cordy replied sarcastically as the four helped the missing members of the group into the main room of the office.

"Well I for one would like to get out of here now and back home," Xander said, his stomach growling. "The food ran out this morning."

"Maybe it's because of the fact that you ate nearly all of it the first day," Trinity glared.

"Aw come on Trinny I did share," Xander replied hurt.

"Maybe you did," she replied rolling her eyes, "But only for the first five minutes."

"I could do with a scotch," Giles groaned as they made their way out of the office and back to Morpheus' ship.

Part 18

Once back at the ship and after all the thanking and welcoming backs the others launched straight into their questions.

"So have you worked out how to get us back?" Buffy asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry," Tank apologized "But we don't know how you got in never mind how to get you out.

"It's a big blank," Neo added, "All we know is there was a bad earthquake brought about that day by the agents-"

"We know sorta of how we got in, it was through Willow's necklace." Xander said.

"The necklace wasn't suppost to do that," Spike grumbled.

"What was it meant to do then Blondie?" Buffy asked.

"None of your business." He snarled.

"Well I think it is," she yelled.

"Spike," Angel said calmly.

"Okay okay, according to what I heard one of its powers happened to be.. well..."

"Spit it out Spike," Angel added.

"It was meant to make the wearer return the love that the person who gave them the necklace felt."

"Ooh Spikey's in *love*," Buffy replied between her bursts of laughing.

"You're in love with me?" Willow asked.

"Erm... well... yes..." Spike mumbled.

"Aw, I love you too," she replied hugging him.

"That's just the necklace talking."

"No it isn't," she replied awkwardly.

"Will what's going on?" Buffy asked getting slightly confused.

"I knew what Spike new and before I had on the necklace, I well... I performed a quick protection spell in my mind and it worked."

"Way to go Will," Xander smiled.

"So... I do love you." Willow replied.

"Then how did we end up here?" Cordy sighed.

"Because the necklace isn't really a love pendant or whatever you want to call it," Morpheus informed them. "It holds a gateway between two dimensions, this and yours. It's highly
regarded by travelers who use the necklace to travel worlds. It looks like someone wanted you out of your world and used you," he said turning to Spike, "As a puppet. You walked right
into the trap."

"The prophecy!" Giles said, "They wanted to get rid of us."

"Dominique," Spike sighed. "She's the demon who gave me the necklace, she needed to get rid of us and did it by the necklace."

"Anyway of getting us back?" Asked Giles.

"Of course, now I know what we're looking at. I've done this before so don't worry."

***

A week later...

***

Buffy lunged the weapon into the demon's forehead and it screamed shattering into a pile of blue-violet slime.

"Everyone ok?" She asked, frowning at the slime that had splattered onto her clothes.

The others replied positively and soon shouted their goodbyes.

"Spike, you wanna go get something to eat, well... I mean... I eat and you... well-"

"Sure as long as you don't mind me just disappearing for a moment to quench my thirst."

Willow scrunched up her face, "Oh... well, ok."

"I'll be back in five minutes," he replied before kissing her and strolling off.

"And then you can tell me some "nice-no blood-and-guts" stories." She shouted after him.

"As long as I get to choose what we do after that Red," he yelled back causing Willow to go the same colour as her hair.

Willow looked up at the sky, "Starlight, starbright... or maybe not."

***

The end.

***
 

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