Angel looked at Giles and sighed. "Spike and Drusilla are, or really were
Angelus' family. His children."

"Drusilla? But wasn't she killed long ago," Giles said, "An angry mob in
Prague."

"No she wasn't," Spike interrupted. "As I told you before Watcher, she went
into the bloody sunlight."

"How do you know who we are?" Giles asked.

"I know more than you think."

"Anyway, once I got my soul back. I didn't really see them again. Couldn't live
with the fact they were what they were because of me." Angel said, picking up
his explanation.

"And it was good for a few years, until you didn't come back. Then Dru went
even more insane if it's possible." Spike muttered.

"She was insane?" Giles repeated.

"Yes, Angelus over here made her insane. Did the usual, kill all her family and
those she loved. Not a pretty sight."

"I wish I could take it back," Angel said, being torn up inside. "But I can't.
Since then you pretty much know my whereabouts. So Spike it's confession time
for you, what are you doing here?"

"Well Daddy dearest, after you did your little soul-boy runaway trick. I
travelled around with Dru. We came here a while after the whole Prague-thing. I
was on my way back one night, just killed a very pretty young girl who put up
the best fight. When there was a crash. I managed to help the woman, for some
reason I don't even want to think about, give birth to her daughter. Whom
afterward I named Willow. I managed to check up on her from time to time. So
it's been five years and i'm here to catch up for lost time."

"You saved me?" Willow choked out.

"Don't make a big deal out of it. It kinda wrecks the reputation if you get
what I mean."

"Thanks." She said before fainting.

"Ignore my advice then." Spike grumbled before picking her up from the floor.

"Put her down," Flora demanded.

"Wouldn't want to hurt her would you?"

Flora just glared at him, "Nothing good will come of you being here," she
hissed.

"Not everyone shares your opinion." Spike threw back before disappearing into
Giles' office.

***

Willow began to stir as she felt someone call her name. "Wha- what
happened?" She managed to ask.

"You fainted," came Spike' soothing voice.

"Oh great." she mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"Don't say sorry, there's nothing to say sorry about."

"There is, i'm sorry for not recognising you."

"Okay, i'll except your apology if you'll except this gift from me." He pulled
out the necklace. "I thought you'd have grown out of barbies by now."

"It's beautiful," Willow gasped. "Really I can't-"

"Please."

Staring into his eyes, Willow relented. "Okay."

Spike gently clasped the necklace around her neck.

"Thank you," Willow replied drawing him into a hug.

"No thank you," Spike whispered as a sly smile appeared on his face as he
returned the hug.

Part 8

Giles was re-reading the prophecy of the necklace, mainly for the benefit
of Angel. When Willow entered the room with Spike.

"Okay so it goes something like this," Giles began.

"Here lies a broken bond
Only to be awakened with the tendrils of fire
An innocence pure in it's own.
But when it sings
The truth in it's heart.
The Earth shall tremor,
And the stars will shine
But change shall not be seen.
Not seen but heard
And all Earth shall be bathed in night."

"So what do we do about it?" Buffy asked. "Can I fight this thing or is it a
spell job for Will?"

"Always putting down my spells," Willow muttered under her breath. "I wish
she'd understand that not everything can be fought by violence."

Suddenly the library started to shake as a bright white light shone on Willow,
spreading toward the group of friends. A small screech of an eagle could be
heard, before the light disappeared. And in the library, only a book lay strewn
on the floor.

***

Dimension where the Matrix exists. Date:2099

The first thing she noticed was the darkness, the never ending darkness and
then the noise that rattled every bone in her body.

"Where am I?" Willow muttered.

"You alright luv?" A voice asked from in front of her.

"Yes..." she replied, standing up. "Can you tell me exactly where we are?"

"Sure," the man replied, a puzzled look on his face. "You're in L.A. It was
just a minor earthquake. You sure your okay? I could take you to a hospital."

"No, thank you." Willow replied, before slowly walking away.

"Strange girl," the man muttered.

***

"What the hell was that?" Neo asked.

"Earthquake," Tank replied, "Seems the agents don't want to listen, else
they're sending a goodbye present you're way-"

Tank was cut off as Neo started to scream, he was clutching his head as if in
extreme pain.

"Dude, you okay?" He asked.

Trinity entered with Morpheus, "Neo what did you see?" She asked as the pain
started to subside.

"People or I think so. They've entered the Matrix but they're not wired in. It
doesn't make sense. They don't seem to be agents."

Trinity glanced over at Morpheus, the look in her eyes reflected in his.

"Travellers," Morpheus muttered under his breath.

***

Buffy wanted to stop running, but to stop meant defeat and defeat wasn't an
option right now. Glancing behind her, she could still see the freaky guy that
had tried to get her into the car with him.. The freaky guy who was more
powerful than she. Seeing a park in front of her, she was about to run to it,
when she saw that the man had disappeared. "What the hell?" She gasped.

Part 9

Willow glanced up at the moon shining brightly in the sky as the rain
started to get heavier. She pulled her jumper more closely around her as the
cold started to seep through her skin. She'd spent the day looking for some
sign of the others but they had all disappeared and she didn't know what to do.

She glanced over to her left, seeing a tall abandoned looking building, looming
in the shadows. Looking around to see if anyone was watching her she muttered,
"Guess it's better than the rain." Before diving into the building.

Shaking the rain from her hair, she took in her surroundings. The old faded
wallpaper was hanging from the walls and the once rich red carpet was stained
and worn, and clinging to the old grand staircase that had been the focal point
of the hotel. Willow some what cautiously put one foot in front of the other,
and started slowly up the staircase.

About halfway up, she heard voices and stopped suddenly. Her eyes darted around
her to see if she had been seen before moving into the shadows, "Well I guess
this day can't get any worse," she thought as she carried on up the stairs.
Getting to the top, she could see a light coming from the far room. Willow
slowly advanced towards the room, still in the shadows. She gently placed her
ear against the door and was about to start listening in, when a heavy object
made contact with her head and everything went dark.

***

Willow began to stir as she heard the voices again. But the an overwhelming
pain soared through her head as she attempted to move.

"Ouch," she yelped and opened her eyes to see a group of people standing around
her. "What the fuck?"

"Are you alright?" The dark-haired man asked.

"Did you catch the number of that bus?" She mumbled as she fainted.

***

Trinity didn't know what to do. "It's the girl from the dream!" He brain
screamed out at her.

"It can't be," she thought, "It was only a dream, I have them all the time."

"But the people in them don't suddenly start jumping out at you," her brain
replied.

"Are you okay?" Morpheus asked.

"I just get the feeling that i've seen her before."

"When?"

"In a dream."

"We'll talk later." He replied as Willow started to stir.

"Feeling better?" Trinity asked her.

"Where am I? I don't understand."

"You entered through a portal," Morpheus told her.

"But the prophecy couldn't have come true we didn't have the neck-" she broke
off, "Spike."

"Yes Red," A dazed voice asked from the other side of the room as the
blonde-haired figure woke up. Realising he was in chains, he started to
struggle against them. "Why the bloody hell have you locked me up?" He asked
the group as he started to bang against them. "What are you waiting for?
Unchain me before I break free and rip all your throats out."

The others just looked at him and ignored his requests, which made him start
throwing more death threats at them.

"Do you have any aspirin?" Willow asked before fainting again.

Part 10

"We've managed to locate your friends, so we're attempting to get them into
the ship. It's pretty hard considering you're the only person we've ever
managed to get into the ship while you're not hardwired into the system." Neo
said entering the main hull of the ship where Willow sat, hands clutched around
a small mug. "Anyway Morpheus seems to know some way so they should be here
soon."

"Thanks," she replied, turning her gaze back to the computers in front of her.
"How do you read this code?" She asked, her tone filled with questioning and
puzzlement.

"I don't know, it starts to make sense at some point and you get used to it I
suppose."

"Do you have any idea on when we'll be able to get out of here."

"That anxious to leave us?" He smirked.

"No," her eyes looked down to the floor, "It might sound really selfish but I
really miss food and my life... Not like it's not nice here or anything. All
these computers, wow."

"It's okay I know what you mean. I guess I still pine for the homeliness of the
Matrix sometimes. So you're into computers then?"

"You're kidding? I _love_ computers. I help back home with stuff, normally I
can hack into any systems we need info from." She suddenly looked sheepish. "Of
course it's not for personal purposes."

"We could always use another hacker, maybe you could help out while you're
here."

"Cool. I-"

Willow was stopped as the sounds of her friends entered the ship.

"Get off me," Xander cried. "I don't care if you think i'm some sort of idiot.
How was I supposed to know about the pills. I wasn't paying any attention. But
that doesn't mean i'm dumb, i'm a little mentally challenged, so what? At least
I didn't spend a large portion of my life hooked up in some dream land."

"Willow!" Buffy yelled, seeing her friend. "What happened? We've been told
about the whole dreamland thing and the portal, but I don't get how we managed
to get into this dimension, I mean we didn't have the neckla-"

She spotted the shining necklace hanging around Willow's neck and her eyes
narrowed.

"Willow, care to explain why you have that death machine hung around your neck?"

"Spike," Willow replied hesitantly, "I swear though," she said seeing the
others coming over, "I didn't know what it was."

"It's okay," Giles said. "Mind if I erm..." His arms waved around in an attempt
to ask if he could look at the necklace.

"Sure," she removed it and handed it over to him.

"It's exquisite." He murmured.

"It's gorgeous," Buffy replied. "How could something like that be so evil?"

"I guess we should have learnt by now that even if something looks good, it's
bad, yep extremely bad." Cordy glanced at Angel, "Mind buying me one next time
I have to toss out clothes because of demon goo?"

Angel glared at her.

"I guess that 'World's greatest boss' mug is gonna have to stay on the shelf
then."

"So, any ideas on how we can get out of here?" Spike asked, walking over and
rubbing his wrists which were red from the chains.

"We?" Buffy echoed, "No you bleached idiot, you can stay here, after all you're
the one who got us here."

"Really, I guess you didn't realise that it has to be set off by evil thoughts,
did you cutie?"

"Bad thoughts?" Buffy's glare turned to Willow.

"Hug?" Willow asked hopefully. "Okay i'm bad, i'm a bad bad Willow and I should
be punished."

"Want me to help you with that luv?" Spike asked.

Buffy and Willow just glared at him.

"Ok-ay," he replied, letting out an un-needed breath.

"I might have something," Giles said as he wiped his glasses.

But suddenly there was a loud warning siren and they where all plunged into
darkness.

Part 11

Angel felt his head start to pound as he regained consciousness. The room
was filled with some kind of gas and it wasn't in the least bit good. He
touched the back of his head, feeling blood seeping out on to his hand. "Guess
I know why the gas didn't effect me," he muttered.

Standing up he looked around the room. It looked like a bomb had hit it,
literally. Wading his way over to an arm that stuck out from under a table, he
easily lifted up the table and managed to drag Buffy out.

"Buffy? Come on, wake up for me. Please Buffy just do this for me." He gently
started to stroke her hair, "Come on, i'm here now. If you wake up everything
will be okay, I promise." Angel stared at her for a minute which felt like
hours before she began to stir.

"Angel?" Her eyes fluttered open. "What happened? I-"

"Shush," he placed a finger over her lips. "There was some kind of attack on
the ship."

From across the room Spike too started to stir, "Bloody hell." He muttered.
"What is it with people here hitting me at the back of my head? Stupid wankers."

Realising that the ship was currently in a shape of looking extremely unlike
the ship he'd been looking at before the blow, he jumped up. "Willow!" He
yelled and frantically started to search the remains for her, as she started to
try and remove the computer desk that had fallen on top of her.

"Did someone call my name?" She mumbled.

"Are you okay?" Spike asked, practically jumping on top of her in his rush to
see if she was okay.

"I would be if you'd help me get this off."

"I'm sorry," he apologised as he removed the table.

"What happened?" She asked. "Where is everyone?"

"They took the rest of your friends, Trinity and most of the crew with them."
Neo said wearily as he entered the ship's main deck.

"Who took them?" Angel asked.

"Agents, they just couldn't let go could they?"

"Agents?" Spike echoed.

"Yes, you know those guys I was talking to you about," he asked Willow.

"Yes." She replied.

"These guys wouldn't happen to be really, really strong and have the whole lets
dress in black and try and copy the men in black routine. Do they?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Lets just say I had a run in with one of them. I managed to loose him somehow."

"You're lucky, most people don't get to live once an agent's after them."

"I guess it's a good thing you're a slayer then." Willow commented.

"A slayer?" Neo said.

"She slays vampires and demons. It's a long story. Maybe you could just fill us
in on why they took most of the gang." Angel replied.

"I don't know, if they wanted to take anyone it should have been me or
Morpheus."

"Maybe the lovely little message that's just appeared on the screen behind you
could give us a little info." Spike said dryly.

The others looked around to see what Spike was talking about. An agent appeared
on the screen, smirking he started to speak.

"Let's just say we wanted to leave you a little goodbye present. No, that's not
right. We can't face losing, so we challenge you to a fight. This fight is
going to be on our terms though. In seven days time we will finish this, you
have up till that time to train the poor little travellers to fight against us
without any help from you. If they win we'll leave this poor excuse for a
planet and you get your pathetic friends back. If we win, it's ours and you all
die. So Neo, care to fight for your world?"

The screen disappeared as quickly as it came.

"Oh boy," Buffy muttered.

"I guess that pretty much summed it up," Neo replied, face white.

"Everyone ready for a little training?" Tank asked, rubbing his head as he
walked further into the room, appearing as soon as he had heard the agent start
to speak.

"I guess I always wanted to learn karate," Willow said, attempting to smile.

Part 12

Spike yelped as Willow's foot connected with his stomach. His demon visage appeared as advanced after her, determined to get his own back.

"I'll get you pet," he warned.

"Yes grandpa," she giggled, moving too fast for him.

Angel and Buffy were in the room connected to theirs and Angel was also losing out to a faster Buffy.

Ten minutes and two extremely pissed off vampires later. Buffy and Willow were laughing as they discussed how they had each won.

"How come they are so bloody fast?" Spike moaned.

"Because they have learnt to let go of the only reality they have ever known. Which you two don't seem to have learnt to have grasped yet. I told you after you failed the training
simulation that you had to learn to let go. Come on, we'll have another go."

"Cool," Buffy said, "I want to actually make the jump this time and leave the deadboys stranded."

"Poor little vampires," Willow replied, struggling to retain yet more laughter as they were fastened into the training programme.

"If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be here," Spike mumbled as they were transported onto the top of the building.

"I can fly," Buffy screamed as she jumped from the building to the next, passing the traffic below.

"Great for you, stupid chit," Spike said.

"Don't be sad Grandpa, I love you really," Willow said quickly kissing him before jumping.

Spike in total shock, ran after her. Forgetting the rules of the real world and made the jump shortly after her.

"Spike, congrats you made it with your ego still intact," Buffy smirked.

"What?" He looked around him. "I made it!" He screamed. "Hey Dad gonna join us?" He yelled to Angel who was looking at the traffic flowing below.

Angel just frowned. "I guess it's just like looking around LA. Only in the daylight when you can see the traffic and how far up from the ground you are. Which is... bad. God, i'm
stuttering like Willow used to do." Gulping back his sudden nerves. He walked back.

"Buffy's on the otherside, Buffy's on the other side," he chanted to himself as he jumped. "Buffy?" He said in shock as he tried to grasp what he was saying. As soon as he tried to clear
his thoughts, he realised that he was hovering above a steadily stream of traffic he fell instantly. Hitting the ground below.

"I guess he needs a little more pushing," Neo commentated as the others laughed as Angel winced as he tried to walk.
 

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