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 8
~*~*~
 
Buffy and Willow stood in the arcade and stared at the trio of geeks,
who, along with Buffy, had just been made visible.  "So you three have,
what, banded together to be pains in my ass?"
 
Warren edged away from her.  Jonathan and Andrew followed him.  "We're
your arch-nemesises ... ses," he proclaimed.  "You may have beaten us
this time, Slayer, but next time ... um ... uh, next time..."
 
"Maybe not!"  Jonathan shouted as he threw something at the floor.  It
exploded creating a smoke screen. 
 
Buffy titled her head toward Willow and sighed.  Her arch nemeses were
stuck at the locked door.  Willow took advantage of their confusion and
slid the inviso-ray along the floor towards them.  "Oh - no - Buffy,
they're - getting - away - with - the - inviso-ray!"
 
They watched the boys looking at their hands, and at each other in
confusion.  "I *thought* you had it," Warren growled at Jonathan.
 
Buffy looked at Willow and rolled her eyes.  "Hurry - Willow, grab the
gun - at their *feet*, before they escape with it!"
 
Warren scrambled on the ground for a moment until he found the ray-gun.
Just then, the others got the door open, and they tumbled out into the
alley.
 
"For a minute there, I thought I was going to have to use a spell to
open the door for them," Willow said, as she and Buffy turned and
headed out the front.
 
"Ya, Will, see patience is it's own reward," Buffy replied.
 
"Hunh?"  Willow queried.
 
"Dunno, just sounded good in my head."  
 
Willow nodded, "Off to the Magic Box then.  We can see if Giles got
it."
 
~*~*~
 
They walked quietly for a few minutes, and Willow watched Buffy out of
the corner of her eye.  She looked preoccupied, off in another world,
but for a change she looked happy and Willow was dying to talk to her
best friend again.  Things had been so strained since Buffy's return. 
"So, Buffy, what's new with you?"
 
"Hunh?  What do you mean, Will?  We live in the same house."
 
"It's just that the last week or so, you seem... I dunno, happy." 
Willow kicked a rock, and watched it skitter along the street before
continuing.  "You're more like your old self.  It's nice."
 
"Thanks, Will.  I guess knowing what's going to happen, and being able
to do something about it... it makes things easier."
 
Willow thought for a moment.  "But you seem happy, not just more
relaxed.  Although, come to think of it, you do seem awfully
*relaxed*."  Willow said nudging her, smiling her "guilty secret"
smile.
 
"Will," she gasped, starting to blush.
 
"I just noticed that you and Spike seem to be getting along better, and
then there's the happy Buffy, and the relaxed Buffy.  And, we just sort
of added the two and the other two together and came up with four." 
She said, grinning.
 
"I can't believe.,.  I mean...  And who is *We*," Buffy sputtered.
 
"Well, first I want to know if it's true, before I compromise my
sources."  Willow bounced on the balls of her feet.
 
"Oh, no!  I'm not going to just spill some... possible... deep dark
secret, just because you claim you know what it is.  You first."  
 
"You know how the laptops crashed, and after that I was trying to get
them connected again.  You know really *connected*.  And you know how
everything you view in the browser winds up in the cache?  And there
you were... you and Spike.  You're..."
 
"Willow!"  Buffy cut her off, blushing furiously now.
 
"You are!  I knew it!  You have to tell me everything!"  Willow
shrieked, grabbing her friend by the shoulders.
 
"First, you're going to tell me how you figured it out.  I thought we
were being discrete."
 
"Well, we can be pretty observy.  There was the increased patrolling,
just when we were seeing way less demon activity due to the prophecy
info.  And like I said before, you were all with the happy and not the
stressed all the time."  Willow's eyebrows shot up emphasizing the
happy smile, and then scrunched together on stressed.  "And of course
there was Spike, not being moody and all, 'I love Buffy but she hates
me,' anymore."
 
Buffy stared at her as Willow thought for a moment.  "I think Tara and
Anya noticed first, but we weren't going to say anything.  You know,
since Xander is still pretty anti-Spike and also being the king of
denial, he would be hard to convince unless he saw you 'doing it' on
the table in the Magic Box."  Willow laughed at the thought of Xander's
face.
 
Buffy laughed too, and then frowned.  "Uh Will, Xander may not be as
clue free as you think.  Not after today."
 
"Why?  What happened?"
 
"Well, I went to talk to Spike, while I was invisible, and Xander
barged into the crypt without knocking."
 
Willow's face went blank for a moment as she remembered what Xander had
told them about Spike, in his bed, 'exercising' as he put it.  "Oh my
god!  You're Spike's imaginary friend!"  She gasped, clamping her hands
over her mouth.
 
Buffy raised her hand.  "In the flesh... as soon as he connects those
dots...."
 
"Boom!"  Willow finished for her.
 
They walked on in silence for a while, each one thinking about the
implications of Xander finding out what he had actually 'seen'.
 
"It doesn't matter."  Willow pronounced.
 
"Hunh?"
 
"It doesn't matter.  We outnumber him!"  She started counting on her
fingers.  "There's me, you, Tara, Anya, Dawn, and I think Giles.  He'll
have to behave, or we'll... we'll...  well, I don't know what we'll do
exactly, but we'll do something."  She said, showing her resolve face. 
"Oh!  I could turn him into a rat.  Amy needs a playmate."  Willow
grinned.
 
"Thanks, Will," Buffy said, hugging her best friend.
 
~*~*~
 
TBC