Title: Buffy & Spike, Lost in Cyber-Space 
 
Author: Anne Rose
 
Email: anne3rose@yahoo.com
 
URL: http://annerose.cjb.net
 
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 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 3
~*~*~
 
 
She clicked on the link.
 
The screen popped open, and a picture of the young man with the soulful blue
eyes and curly brown hair appeared again.  He looked similar to Spike, but his
face had a gentle, innocent quality to it.  She wondered how he was related to
Spike.  The text for William the Bloody's bio read, "William, last name
unknown, born in London, circa 1860.  Turned by Drusilla in 1880.  Killed his
first slayer in China, 1900.  Killed second slayer in New York, NY, 1977.  See
video clip for more details."
 
"More details - ya, that would be nice, considering how pathetic that biography
was."  She muttered.  "Not even a mention of who the guy in the picture is. 
These Oracles, or whatever, they may have embraced modern technology, but the
still have a lot to learn."  She stared at the link again.  "Ok, enough
stalling - you're the Slayer - click the link....  It can't be any worse than
the last one.  I'm clicking the link."  She took a deep breath and clicked.
 
She saw herself talking with Spike in the Bronze.  'That's odd.  I thought we
were going to England 100 years ago.'  She sighed and listened to them talk as
she coerced information out of Spike about the two slayers he had killed.
 
"What can I tell you, baby?  I've always been bad."  As he said the words the
scene changed to a Victorian parlor where the man in the picture was sitting,
writing.  She heard Spike's voice in the background, narrating, but he was
nowhere to be seen at the party.  'No doubt he crashes it later and eats
everyone,' she thought.
 
She watched as the foppish young man struggled with his poetry.  "I'm the very
spirit of vexation.  What's another word for 'gleaming'?  It's a perfectly
perfect word as many words go but the bother is nothing rhymes, you see."  She
chuckled.  It was like something out of Pride and Prejudice.  He preferred
creating things of beauty rather than thinking about dark and ugly things.  'I
can identify with that,' she said to herself, 'slaying is all about the dark
and ugly, no time for the beauty and creating.'  She sighed.
 
Then a very rude man began taunting the would-be poet, taking his unfinished
work and reading it out loud to the laughing crowd.  She seethed at the
unfairness and cruelty.  The poet seemed dismayed, and struggled to remain
dignified in spite of the insults.
 
When she saw him next, he was having his heart torn out and crushed verbally by
a young girl he was obviously smitten with.  "You're beneath me," she said as
she stood and walked away.  
 
'Where's a vengeance demon when you need one?'  Buffy though.  Her heart went
out to the gentle young man, as he stumbled out into the street.  He bumped
into someone, and she gasped as she recognized Angelus.  The women with him
were Dru and Darla.  She tightened her fists as she watched the scene unfold,
helpless to protect this innocent man.  The scene changed again, and now the
new vampire was arguing with Angelus.  "It's Spike now!....."
 
Buffy gasped, causing Spike to jerk his head away from the computer and look at
her.  "Everything alright, Pet?"  He asked with concern.
 
She minimized the video clip and looked back at him, collecting herself.  "Um,
no big.  They just had a really bad picture of me on this one site.  You know,
Slayer hair."  She studied him for a moment, seeing elements of William's face
in his.
 
He stared intently at her for a moment, fairly certain that she was lying. 
"Well then, I think you should send them some nice threatening email.  That's
just the thing to fix it."
 
She shrugged, "Yep, one flamey email coming up."  She fiddled with her email
for a minute, until he turned back to his computer.  Then she brought the clip
back up.
 
Buffy backed up the video to watch the scene again.  William, or rather Spike,
and Angel were fighting.  Spike was annoying Angel, as only he could.  The face
and hair was still William's, but the expression was all Spike.  She shook her
head.  'How could I have missed it before?'
 
Stealing a glance at Spike, to make sure he was still occupied, she backed up
the video again and watched the scene at the party.  It was amazing.  She heard
Spike's voice again saying, "I've always been bad."  She chuckled, 'Those words
are never going to sound the same again.'  As she watched again, this time she
caught the name William the Bloody, and the rude man said he'd rather have a
railroad spike driven through his head than listen to his bloody awful poetry. 
Suddenly, she hoped he'd gotten his wish.  'Oh, not good, very un-Slayer
thoughts,' she told herself, but another part of her said, 'Nobody messes with
my boyfriend!'
 
Spike turned again as Buffy let out a startled squeak.  She looked perplexed
and a little annoyed.  When she didn't say anything else he asked, "Found
another unflattering photo?  Do you want me to eat the Webmaster for you?"
 
"Hmmm?"  She murmured distractedly, "Good idea, Spike.  You work on that, and
I'll keep looking here."  She was still stunned by the truth of Spike's human
existence.  'And he is so, not my boyfriend!'  She told herself.
 
She had always taken for granted that he was evil, like Angel had been - a
rotten human being, and even worse as a vampire.  She had ignored any signs of
humanity in him, but now they were bubbling back up, into her memory.  He had
turned on Angel, and fought alongside her, his mortal enemy, to save Dru.  He
had stayed in Sunnydale and fought along side the Scoobies and protected Dawn,
even after she was gone.  She shook her head.  It was all so confusing.  Things
that seemed black and white were now an odd shade of gray.
 
Spike smiled as he watched her for another minute.  He wished he could see what
was on her screen, but the laptop display made that impossible unless he leaned
very obviously into her space.  'Later,' he thought.  'I can always surf
through the history later.'  And he went back to delve into his own fascinating
discoveries.
 
Buffy was totally engrossed again in the clip.  "What's a Slayer?"  She saw him
ask.  Then she watched - actually watched - as Spike killed two slayers.  She
was horrified, but also she was so fascinated that she reversed the clip twice
to watch the fight again.  She felt anger rise up in her.  He was a monster, an
animal.  He might have been human once, but that was long gone.
 
The scene shifted to the alley outside the Bronze.  She watched as Spike
taunted her, and they fought.  Then he leaned in, and tried to kiss her. 
Suddenly she remembered what happened next and watched the unfolding scene with
dread and embarrassment.  Such horrible, harsh words, she couldn't believe they
were coming from her mouth.  "You're beneath me," the other Buffy said.  Buffy
gulped as she watched Spike's reaction, the words she and Cecily had both said,
echoing in her head.  
 
He sat on the ground where she had knocked him, his face contorted in pain, and
on the verge of tears as he scrambled to pick up the money she'd thrown at him.
Then he took a deep breath and a look of anger and determination came over
him.  
 
That night had been a blur.  Watching him load his shotgun in his crypt and
stalk out to find her, she realized how close to death she had been.  He walked
up to the house, intent on killing her, but then his face changed when he saw
her sitting on the steps.  She had been crying.  Her mom was sick, and her
world was falling apart.
 
Buffy gasped again as she saw the look on Spike's face.  She had been far too
preoccupied with her own problems to see it that night.  His anger melted and
she saw such tenderness in his look.  Her stomach clenched as she watched him
sit beside her other self.  At that moment, he didn't look like a monster.  In
fact, he might never look like a monster to her again.
 
As the display ended, she turned slightly to the right, away from Spike and
quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and off of her cheeks.  She had had no
idea, none at all, that her words had hurt him like that.  Even if she had
known, she wouldn't have cared, he was just a thing.  How could she possibly
have known he had real feelings?
 
A voice nagged in the back of her mind.  Reminding her of what he went through
when Glory captured and tortured him, and a dozen other incidents when he had
been there for her.  He didn't need to do any of those things.  She knew it,
and she had ignored it.  
 
She sniffed a bit, and then decided to look at something else for a while. 
Dawn was listed here too.  She needed to find out what they knew about her.
 
TBC...