"Willow, wait." Said the slayer, as she and her friend approached the gallery.

"Why?" Asked Willow.

"Something feels wrong." Buffy said. "You wait here, I'm going to go in and check on mom."

"No way. If there were something wrong I'd rather stick with you. I mean what if you go in and something sneaks up behind me out here?"

"Good point. Come on."

With that the two girls entered the gallery. The lights were on, but there was no one to be seen.

"Hello? Mom?" Called Buffy. "Are you here?"

"Maybe she's just in the basement of something?" Willow said, trying to sound confident.

"And leave the gallery open with no one watching it? No way. Something is definitely out of whack here. Let's go check out her office."

The girls headed towards the back of the building. As they got half way in a voice called out.

"Well look what we have here. The guests of honor for our little get together have finally arrived."

Buffy and Willow looked back towards the front door. Standing there was Spike, the newest addition to Sunnydales's nightlife. Buffy felt a sudden sense of dread.

"Where's my mother you bastard?" She yelled.

"Not here." Replied the blond vampire. "Never was to be truthful for once.

"Lucky for me one of my kiddies is a gifted mimic. Got you and your little friend to come here. Which is good considering all the trouble I went though preparing this booze up for you."

As Spike spoke more vampires revealed themselves, a lot more. "We really wanted to do this tomorrow night." Spike continued. "But then a little bird told me that you and your garden society were going on holiday. No bother though. It just means that Dru never got to bake the cake. Shame too, she was really looking forward to it." By now over two dozen vampire had surrounded the teens. Buffy pulled out a stake, which caused the vampires to laugh.

"That little stick against all of us? My but you are confident, aren't you?" Spike taunted.

_____________________________________________________________

Xander couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"So you guys knew Spike was planning something and instead of telling us you decided to get us out of town." He said from the back seat of Giles car.

"Basically." Said Angel from the passenger seat.

"You lied to us." He said to Giles.

"It seemed prudent at the time." Giles responded as he silently cursed how slow his car was.

"And This Alex guy, where does he fit in?" Asked Xander.

"That's too complex to get into." Answered Angel hoping to deflect the question. "What I'd like to know is where he is. He told me to go get you while he continued to question the vampire we caught."

"What for?" Asked Giles "After all, you said that Spike hadn't told him where the ambush was going to happen.

"This is Alex we're talking about. I have no idea how his mind works." Angel responded.

Xander wanted to ask more questions, but couldn't figure out what. He was out of his mind worrying about Buffy and Willow.

"If anything happens to either of them I'll never forgive either of you." He said.

Angel turned to say something back, but his words stuck in his throat. Xander's eyes had a cold look in them. The same look that Alex's eyes always had. Angel felt an ache in his soul.

(We've failed all three of them.) He thought.

"We're here." Said Giles as he pulled up to the art gallery.

___________________________________________________________________

Buffy was getting tired. There were too many vampires to fight. She had managed to dust two of them, but two more just took their place. They already had Willow, but hadn't hurt her yet. From the way they were fighting it was apparent to Buffy that their goal wasn't to kill her outright.

"Give it up Slayer." Taunted Spike from the sidelines. "All you're doing is getting yourself all sweaty. On second thought keep it up for a while. I think sweaty is attractive. I'm kind of sad that way."

(Oh how I wish I could think of a witty comeback for that bastard.) Thought Buffy.

Giles, Angel, and Xander chose that moment to rush into the gallery.

"Where the hell did all these bloodsuckers come from?" Asked Xander.

A look of realization came over Giles face.

"Los Angeles. All those disappearances. It was Spike, building up his forces." He said.

"Whatever." Yelled Angel as he launched himself at the group of vampires surrounding Buffy.

Xander and Giles started trying to use their crosses to wade their way through the other vampires to get to Willow.

"Now this is what I call a party." Called out Spike.

In a mad rage Angel managed to stake two of the vampires on Buffy, just to have more join in from the sidelines.

"Good timing." Said Buffy.

"Could have been better." Was Angel's reply as he and the slayer fought on. Xander had managed to break through the horde of undead and get up to the vampire holding his lifelong friend captive. The vampire released Willow and lunged at Xander.

(Must be a newbie.) Thought Xander as he impaled it on the stake he had in his hand.

Suddenly Spike was in front of Xander.

"Now was that nice?" Asked the vampire mockingly.

Xander stabbed at Spike with the stake, only to have it batted out of his hand by the blond vampire. He tried to get his cross up, but before he had a chance Spike had him by the throat. Grabbing Xander's hand, Spike squeezed until the pain made the cross fall from the boy's hand.

"That's better. Now we can be friends." Said Spike. Then he yelled across the room. "Hey Slayer, look at what I got."

Buffy had been busy trying to keep up with the constant onslaught of vampires. Three of them had grabbed angel and were holding him down. Giles was also being restrained, so she was on her own. At the sound of Spikes voice the ones fighting her had backed off and gave Buffy a chance to look at him. The sight of Xander in his grip terrified her.

"Let him go Spike!" She yelled.

"Oh right." Responded the vampire. "Like that's going to happen."

Willow leapt at Spike, hoping to help Xander. All she got for her trouble was a vicious backhand.

"Not now little dove, I'll get to you later. Now where was I. Oh yeah. This is the guy who saved you, isn't it Slayer? The one who breathed life back into you when the Master sent you to the old dirt nap. If it weren't for him I wouldn't have to be dealing with you right now."

"This is between you and me Spike" Yelled Buffy. "Leave Xander out of it. You and me, that's the way it's suppose to be, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. I let the dweeb go and you and I get it on. I don't think so. We're a little too evenly matched for my tastes. When I fight, I want to have an unfair advantage. That's why I brought so many friends. But I'll tell you what; I'm feeling generous. You surrender yourself to me and I'll let your savior go. If not I'll just disembowel him right here. It's not like you or Angelus can get through my kids here fast enough to stop me."

"Buffy don't..aack." Xander tried to yell, but Spike squeezed his throat.

"Now why would you be going all noble on us? Hey Slayer what do you think? Why is he trying to be all noble? You don't suppose he loves you do you? That would be stupid, what with you all tinglely about Angelus and all." Spike Taunted.

Those last taunts nearly brought Buffy to tears. She knew exactly how Xander felt about her. He hadn't ever bothered to hide the fact. Despite her open affection for Angel and the fact that she had turned him down outright when he had asked her out, Xander still loved her and now it seemed he was going to pay the ultimate price for that love. That left Buffy feeling that she had very little choice.

"If I surrender to you, do you promise to let him go?" Asked Buffy.

"Buffy no!" Screamed Angel. Don't"

"I have to!" She cried out. "I can't let Xander suffer because of me."

"That's right Slayer, you can't." Said Spike with a sneer. "So we have a deal. I get you and your not so secret admirer goes free. Who knows, maybe the next Slayer will avenge you. Now come here and I'll let the boy go. I'll even let you give him a good-bye kiss."

The undead cleared a path between Buffy and Spike. Giles and Angel struggled against the vampires holding them, both yelling at Buffy not to do it as she approached the Spike. Even Xander, struggling against Spike's grip, was shaking his head no. Only Willow said nothing, though that was more due to being too stunned from Spike's blow to be aware of her surroundings. As Buffy approached her eyes met Xander's.

"I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you." She said with tears in her eyes.

The sound of crashing glass suddenly rang out. All eyes in the gallery turned to see a man come bursting through one of the gallery windows. He threw something from his hand, which landed in the middle of a group of six vampires. There was a flash and the six found themselves on fire, which lead to them quickly becoming ash.

"Alex, thank God." Said Giles.

Spike stared at the new comer with a look of disgust.

"And who exactly the hell are you?" He demanded.

"You killed the woman I loved." Answered Alex, returning Spike's stare with a look of open hatred.

"You'll have to more specific that that mate." Said Spike.

"All right. I'm the one who has returned the favor." Alex announced as reached under his coat and threw something at Spike's feet.

Spike looked down and saw an old fashion doll. The same kind that...

"Drusilla!" Screamed Spike as he released Xander to lunge at Alex.

Alex sidestepped the attack and hit Spike in the die with his right palm. Spike's momentum combined with Alex's blow sent the vampire flying into a pair of his minions. Buffy used the distraction to attack the Vampires holding Giles down. Xander, who was still trying to recover from the abuse to his throat, went to check on Willow. Angel still found himself being held down by a trio of vampires.

Spike got back to his feet and pointed at Alex.

"Grab that bastard, but don't kill him. I want to make him suffer a long time." He ordered.

At that command four vampires rushed the time traveler. Alex killed one of them right away, but was hit from behind by another. Satisfied that Drusilla's killer would be taken care of Spike turned his attention back to his main target. He saw Buffy fight two of the vampires that had been containing the watcher. It was obvious from the way that she was fighting that she was exhausted. She would be easy picking now. He ran across the room, closing the distance between him and the slayer. He hit her form behind knocking her to the ground. He stood over the stunned girl with a look of satisfaction.

"I win." He said. As he started to bend down towards Buffy.

The sound of someone yelling made him turn around and look. Xander was charging at him, stake in hand.

"Oh please." He said sarcastically as he stepped forward to meet the boy.

Xander collided into Spike at full speed. The impact caused Spike to actually back up a couple of steps. The two looked at each other for a moment, both having looks of surprise on their faces. Then Spike crumbled to dust, leaving Xander still holding the stake in his hand.

"Buffy?" He asked.

"I'm fine." She said as she shakily got back to her feet.

He looked down at himself and then back at her.

"I love you." He said and then collapsed.

Buffy rushed to his side.

"Xander! Xander!" She yelled

She saw a red spot spreading out from his stomach "No!" She cried out. "You can't die!"

Seeing that their leader was gone, The remaining vampires lost morale and fled. As soon as they were gone Giles rushed to join Buffy. Angel went to check on the unconscious Willow. Alex weakly got to his feet.

"Giles do something." Begged the crying slayer.

"I'll do what I can." He said as he removed his coat and started pressing it down on Xander's wound. "Alex call for help."

"I can't Giles." Alex responded.

"What? Why not?" demanded the watcher.

"My mission is done. Buffy and Willow are safe and Spike is destroyed.The spell is ending. I'm going back." Was the reply.

"I'll call the ambulance." Called Angel as he got up from Willow's side and started towards the gallery office.

Giles spared Alex a glance as he tried his best to stop Xander from bleeding to death. A great deal of emotion played on his face.

"What kind of future waits for you?" He asked the time traveler.

"I have no idea." Answered Alex, who was beginning to glow. "I may not have a future. If my younger self dies I can never have existed there. Not that oblivion is so bad a fate after what I've been through."

"What is he talking about?" Buffy asked Giles between sobs.

"He's from the future" Answered the Watcher as he turned his full attention back to the wounded boy. "He's Xander from the future."

As what Giles said sunk in, Buffy stopped crying and stood up. She walked over to Alex who was now surrounded by an increasing yellow glow. Alex's face was showing signs of discomfort, bordering on pain.

"Xander?" Asked Buffy.

"Yes." He answered.

"But how."

"You'll have to ask Giles later. Just know this now. I loved you enough to risk coming back and changing time. No matter what happens to me now or in the future please remember that."

As Alex said those last words the glow grew in brightness until it was too difficult to look at him. Buffy heard him yell out in pain and then both the glow and Alex were gone.

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