Thanks to Sophie, Cheri, Justagirl, and everyone who wrote reviews on fanfiction.net. Thanks to Hubby for taking the brunt of the beta reading. My other betas are on vacation or up to their necks in school. Please let me know what you think of this part. Dawn held her breath until I wrote it. ;-) - Anne Rose ------------------- Title: Buffy & Spike, Lost in Cyber-Space Author: Anne Rose Email: anne3rose@yahoo.com URL: http://annerose.cjb.net http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=47579 Rating: R (but nothing you haven't seen on the show, at 8pm.) Disclaimer: Joss and Mutant Enemy, etc. own BtVS. No infringement intended. Any resemblance to people living, dead, or undead, or to real life events is all in your mind, is downright scary, and means you seriously need to get a life. Spoilers: Season 6, but story is set after 'Once More With Feeling' where Buffy lives, and a little later in Fic-land. Summary: S/B, Willow has been using her computer to do a little inter-dimensional hacking. Spike finds it and wacky Internet hi-jinks ensue. It gets a bit more serious as it goes along. Answer to Challenge from Stephanie Honey. Archive: I would be honored if you want to archive it. Please let me know where so I can visit it. Author's Note: time passes differently in different dimensions. So it can be almost end of Season 6 in one place and Season 5 in another. Oh wait, that's syndication. ;-) And don't get on my case about screen names. I'm just keeping them simple. Thanks to the Buffy Dialog Database (http://vrya.cstone.net/index.htm) and the Buffy Guide (http://www.buffyguide.com/episodes.shtml) for help with research and parts of episodes. Thanks to Clare009, Dakota, and Hubby for beta reading. (c) April 25, 2002 --------------------- [Spoiled_Spuffy] fanfiction group challenge from Stephanie Honey Hey fic writes! I got a challenge for ya'll! Here it is: Requirement 1. Humorous Fic!!! Requirement 2. Buffy and Spike find a fanfic group. And can't believe some of the stuff fans write about them!!! Requirement 3. PG-13 or higher Requirement 4. e-mail it to me at honeymajandra@hotmail.com Option 1. Try to mention these members: Honeymajandra (me- Stephanie Honey), Sophie_limbourg (Sophie), Sarafina120 (Melissa), Lochnoir (Jerri) --------------------- Buffy & Spike, Lost in Cyber-Space By Anne Rose Part 10 ~*~*~ Dawn squealed with delight, "I get to be the horse!" she said grabbing the piece from the box sitting on the coffee table. Dawn was sitting on a cushion on the floor with Spike and Buffy, also on cushions, to her right. Giles had pulled up a chair at the end of the coffee table, since Xander and Anya had claimed the couch. Tara and Willow were sitting at the other end of the table, opposite Giles. "There aren't enough pieces to go around anymore, you'll have to share Dawn," Buffy reminded her. "Fine! Spike and I will beat all of you," she latched onto his arm, sticking her tongue out at Buffy. "Dawn!" Buffy whined. Then she threw her hands up in the air. "Fine! I'll just play with," she looked around the room at Tara and Willow with the dog, Xander and Anya with the wheelbarrow, and finally at Giles who was inspecting the car. "Guess it's you and me. You wanna handle the money or roll for us?" "What?" Giles squinted down at her. "Um, why don't you decide?" He looked at the car again. "I'm quite sure I'll become comatose with equal rapidity in either case." Buffy rose up on her cushion, so she could whisper to Giles, "The sooner we beat them, the sooner we can quit playing." "Ah, I see your point. Very well," he set the piece on the board, picked up the rules, and began studying them. Anya was counting out money for each team. "I used to think this game was a travesty of the work ethic, but now I see it's a useful tool for teaching children the value of a dollar. Of course they're not real dollars, and the prices are well below market value." "You forgot the $500 in the center," Dawn observed, as Anya finished returning the extra money to the bank. "I did not," Anya flipped her hair back. "That's not in the rules." "But we always play it that way. $500 in the center, and all the fines and stuff goes in there too. Buffyyyyyyy!" She pleaded. Buffy rolled her eyes, and she saw Giles was about to say something, but she pre-empted him, "Anya, we do usually play that way. It's fun, and it makes the game go faster," she looked directly at Giles. He stared at her for a second, and then blinked. "Oh, yes, right..." He flipped the rules over and pointed to a paragraph. "It clearly says you can add your own rules if they are agreed upon at the start," he said, handing the rules to Anya, and exchanging a nod with Buffy. "I don't see the point..." Anya started to argue. Xander jumped in. "Anya honey, if you land on Free Parking, you get all that money in the center." "Oh, I see," she smiled greedily, "In that case, let's go ahead." She tossed a $500 in the center and leaned across the board to pinch Dawn's cheek. "You're just so cute and clever." Dawn frowned at her, and batted her hand away. "I'm not a baby, Anya." "Of course you're not," Anya gushed. "Whatever," Dawn replied, going back to setting up her money. They rolled the dice to see who would go first, and Dawn won. Dawn rolled again, and Spike picked up the horse and began moving it around the board. Tara and Willow were next, then Xander and Anya, with Buffy and Giles going last. The dice were passed around from one team to the next as everyone started to get into the spirit of the game. In spite of himself, Giles found he was fascinated by the challenge of formulating a strategy to overcome the random throw of the dice. He was at odds with Buffy on this. He wanted to buy everything they landed on, while she wanted to save and accumulate cash. By the time all the property was sold, they had only one color group, the reds, and one railroad to show for their efforts. However, Giles and Buffy's situation weren't getting the worst of it. Tara and Willow had acquired the least valuable property on the board, owning the dark purple pair and the utilities. Anya smiled as she took them out a few rounds later, when they landed on her first hotel. Dawn was having a great time. She and Spike were doing very well. A short while later, it was down to them against Anya and Xander. There was a lull in the game while Giles turned over the last of his pieces to Dawn. Buffy yawned and scooted over closer to Spike. He absentmindedly stroked her back as they watched Dawn gleefully count out the last of Giles and Buffy's money. Dawn swept the houses and hotels off her new properties and neatly stacked their real estate cards in among her own. About that time the phone rang. Buffy looked at her watch. The only people who would be calling her at this hour were there. Giles got up, "That must be Wesley. When I left the message, I said I would likely be here." "Good luck," Buffy said, not moving from her spot, leaning against Spike. Giles nodded as he walked over to the kitchen to answer the phone. The game raged on with Dawn and Anya fairly evenly matched. Spike and Xander did their bit, rolling the dice and moving their pieces around the board. Xander in particular was unusually calm and compliant, not at all like he had been earlier that day in the Magic Box. He leaned back on the couch, with one arm around Anya, and the other hand cradling the cup of tea Willow had made for him. Xander reached for the dice, but Dawn snatched them up. "Ooh, wait, Xander, my turn's not over! I need to put houses on my new color groups." She turned and looked at her partner. "What do you think, Spike?" She was bouncing on her knees and breathless. He glanced across the board at Xander and Anya. "I fancy the red ones, Niblet." He raised his eyebrow and grinned back at Dawn. "Xander yells louder when he lands on those." She squeaked with glee. "Ohh, I want a hotel on each then," Dawn said counting out the money for Anya. She took the pieces Anya handed her and carefully arranged them on the properties. When she finished she rolled and moved the horse. "Free Parking!" Xander groaned as she scooped the wad of money out of the center. As Xander reached for the dice, Dawn counted out the squares from the wheelbarrow to her next properties. "You need a 2, 7, or 10 to miss us." She clapped her hands. "You'll never make it." Xander scowled at the sea of red hotels he was facing. Reaching toward Tara with the dice, "You never know. Maybe Tara would blow on the dice for us, for luck." Tara chuckled and shook her head, "You two are on your own. We promised no influencing the dice." "Oh well," Xander brought his hand over to Anya. "How about it, An?" "You know I don't have my powers, Xander. And even if I did, I couldn't use them for my own wishes," she explained. Xander held his other hand up, "It's just a game, An." "Oh, very well," she leaned forward slightly and blew on the dice. Xander tossed them onto the board. "10, the hard way!" He shouted. "Yes!" He took the wheelbarrow and danced it along the board past Dawn's hotels. "Not stopping here, or here, or there," he chanted as he went. "What do you think of that, Dawnster?" He smirked, placing the dice in front of her, very pleased with himself. Dawn exchanged a wicked grin with Spike. "I think you rolled doubles and you get to go again," she snickered, tossing the dice back at him. Xander's face fell as Dawn went back to counting out which rolls would bankrupt him. Spike ruffled her hair and smiled broadly, "That's my girl. Show no mercy." Dawn laughed as she smoothed her hair back into place. Grabbing a large handful of popcorn she watched Xander. On Spike's other side, Buffy had sunk down and was using his thigh as a pillow. She had been watching the game, but after a few minutes, he could feel her pulse and breathing slow. Giles returned from the phone call and sat back down. Spike looked up at him expectantly. "Wesley was just calling back to say he's agreed to 'take care of' Holtz. After he had some time to think about it, he realized we were right about Angel being unwilling to kill him himself. What with his guilt over Holtz's family." "He understood about the false prophecy and Conner being kidnapped, and you didn't mention me, right?" Spike asked. Giles nodded. "That's good then." "Spike, I can understand why you wanted me to call Wesley instead of you, but I still don't understand why you wanted to help Angel in the first place." Giles asked. "As far as I can tell, you two have never gotten along." "Can't have my 'uncle' getting sucked into some demon dimension," Spike remarked, trying to look relaxed and cocky. Then, looking down at Buffy as she slept, he said, "Here, Giles, would you pass me that blanket?" Giles handed him the blanket and watched as Spike unfolded it and tucked it around Buffy, lifting her hair up over the blanket and tucking it around her chin. He smoothed the blanket over her and rested his hand on her back. He looked up and saw Giles watching him curiously. "I think she's a bit knackered from her run in with the nerds. Being all invisible and then visible again has to take a toll." Giles nodded, as Spike went back to caressing her back. Looking back up at Giles, Spike said, "Seemed like it was time to try to mend fences is all." The rest of the pieces began to fit together for Giles and he looked thoughtful. "But if he doesn't know where the information came from..." Spike shrugged. He was about to say something else when everyone shouted. Xander had landed on Dawn's Boardwalk hotel. Xander groaned as Anya tallied up their net worth. "Xander, you bankrupted us! You and your frivolous dice rolls." "It's just a game, Anya!" He started to raise his voice. Dawn shrieked and gave Spike a huge hug, nearly knocking him over. "We won! Look, we won!" He hugged her back, "We didn't just win, Niblet. We crushed 'em!" He laughed with her. After a moment he looked at Dawn. Raising his eyebrows, he nodded towards Xander. Dawn got the hint. Letting go of Spike, she leaned over the table, extending her hand to Xander and then Anya. "Great game, guys," she said, shaking their hands and attempting to play the gracious victor. Anya smiled unconvincingly and elbowed Xander. He growled back at her and then glared at Spike. "Um, have some more tea, Xander," Willow suggested, moving into his line of sight, and handing him yet another fresh cup. He looked back and forth between Willow and Anya for a moment, and then sighed and took a swallow from the cup Willow had given him. "Gee, Willow, this is great tea. What kind is it?" "It's just some herbal tea that Tara and I made. No caffeine - won't make you jittery or keep you up." Willow said. "And the valerian doesn't hurt either," Tara whispered, and the two giggled. They had made it up special for Xander after today's events. It was harmless and had kept him from ruining the party by trying to kill Spike. "What's going on?" Xander asked, not sure if they were giggling at him. "Oh, we were just, um, thinking you were going to have to make it up to Anya for that last roll," Willow answered, hoping her excuse wasn't too lame and he wouldn't pursue it. Xander shrugged and drank some more of his tea while Willow and Tara cleared away the rest of the dishes and debris from the party, and said good night to everyone. Anya collected all the game pieces and put the monopoly board back into the box. "Thank you for the game, Dawn, and congratulations" Giles said, as he stood preparing to leave. "We'll have to do this again," she gushed. Giles smiled at her gently. "Yes, actually I had a good time in spite of my earlier apprehensions. It would be pleasant to get together just for fun on occasion." Dawn beamed at Giles. Xander and Anya hugged Dawn on their way out. Giles lingered for a moment, looking back at Buffy, still asleep, curled up against Spike. It wasn't often that he saw her so peaceful and happy. "Don't worry," Dawn assured Giles. "He'll carry her upstairs, now that Xander is gone." Giles actually blushed slightly. "Quite," he murmured. Then he looked back at Dawn. "It was a lovely evening. See you tomorrow." He walked out and Dawn closed the door behind him. She still had a huge grin on her face. "Had a good time then, did you, Niblet?" Spike asked. He carefully lifted Buffy and walked to the bottom of the stairs where Dawn was standing. "Oh, I had a great time. Usually the only time we get together is when something awful is happening. This was so neat." "Glad to hear it, Luv." He smiled affectionately at her. "Now, I've got to get Big Sis upstairs. She's had a long day. See you in the morning." "Goodnight," she replied, as Spike carried Buffy up the stairs and into her room, shutting the door. Dawn turned and floated off to her room. ~*~*~ TBC