Disclaimer: Joss owns the characters of BTVS. I am not making any money off of this fic. Please don't sue me. Beta'd by AtheneHahn

A/N: Written in answer to Redwolf50's Challenge 109. Challenge details at the end.

by Jackofspikes

Chapter 9

"Let me see if I have this straight." Joyce said from her position on the couch, firmly settled between her two daughters. "At this point in time, I have a sixteen year old daughter, who is the Slayer – the one girl in all the world who fights demons, but she's not actually the only one anymore because when she was killed by a bat-faced old master, known affectionately as 'the ugly old git', another girl was called. My daughter was then resuscitated by a young man who may or may not have a crush on her while her useless 'poofter' of a boyfriend stood by and did nothing." Joyce paused, taking a breath before continuing, "My fifteen year old daughter is not actually my daughter, but an ancient mystical 'glow-y key thing-y' that a group of monks turned into an innocent child and sent to the slayer for protection from a 'skanky ho hell god', who wants to 'stick her in a lock'. This would kill Dawn and pull down all the dimensional walls causing hell on earth. Dawnie is thought to have come to us in 2000, where she suddenly appeared as an 'annoying fourteen year old, but because of a spell done by the 'stupid' monks everyone's memories had been altered to include Dawn in our lives, making it difficult to pinpoint the timing of Dawn's arrival.

"Last night, when Dawn went to bed it was 2001 and she was fifteen; when she woke up it was 1997 and she was still fifteen, but apparently all our memories with the exception of Dawn, Spike and possibly this Buffy, have again been altered to fit the reality of Dawnie being here, now aged fifteen. At this point we don't have any idea why this has happened." Joyce took another deep breath and turned to Buffy, "This Buffy is my twenty year old daughter from 2001, who was sent back in time with Spike by a 'bunch of nerds with a ray-gun' and while Buffy is stuck here for an indefinite amount of time, Spike can't go back because the Spike of this time is trapped in this Spike's body...is that it?" Joyce asked her audience, her obvious amusement highlighted by a raised eyebrow.

"Wow, way to go with the non-wigginess, mom." Dawn looked at her mother, impressed.

"You're sure taking it better than you did in my time." Buffy huffed, pouting.

Tearing his eyes away from her lips and stifling a groan, Spike offered a gentle rebuke. "In all fairness, luv, you'd been accused of murdering the other slayer, you'd just dusted a vamp in front of her, told her you were the slayer and didn't give her any time to process it before you told her you were off to save the world."

"Stop using logic on me, that is sooo not fair." Buffy pretended to whine, but when Spike smirked at her, she turned to Dawn and asked in mock seriousness, "How can he be so brilliant and yet so amazingly retarded at the same time?"

Dawn giggled as Spike's expression alternated between wounded for the insult and delighted by the compliment.

Buffy's shot up straight, her body still and her eyes closed. Opening them wide she looked directly at Spike, "Na ah, that sooo did not happen."

"What's that, pet?" He quickly asked the shocked girl.

"I think I know what's causing some of our problems." Buffy diverted everyone's attention away from Spike's question.

"What would that be Buffy?" Giles asked.

"The claim, I think it's causing a connection between all the Summers women...like Dawnie, for example. When the monks sent her to me, what if they bonded her to me or something and when I was sent through time, the key part of her sort of recognized a distance between us and tried to like re-establish contact, or something, but because I was back in time...I don't know, maybe the connection was weak?" Buffy tried to explain her way of thinking.

"...and you think that the claim, because it was in the name of Summers women, made the connection stronger and 'bit's keyness brought her back here to us?" Spike finished her thought.

"Well...yeah...ooh, ooh and maybe the memory changes happen automatically to like protect Dawnie, the spell is muta-whatsey," Buffy offered excitedly.

"That would be mutable, Buffy," Giles gently corrected, "And that is certainly a feasible explanation."

"So, what was the other Buffy's memory change that brought on this little epiphany, Slayer?" Spike grinned at the girl, one eyebrow raised. He knew his slayer; he knew she had sidestepped his earlier question and he was mightily curious to know why.

"It's nothing. I just remembered a conversation I had with Willow once." She responded with forced casualness.

"About what, Buffy?" Giles' interest was equally piqued.

"Sooo not going there," Buffy's stubborn expression brooked no argument and Spike was suddenly sure that the claim was also having some sort of effect on the younger version of his slayer, which meant things were going to start getting real interesting, real soon.

~*~*~

"Buffy, I need to speak to you." Angel caught the attention of the beautiful young blond.

"Angel," Buffy hissed at the brooding vampire, while she grabbed his arm and ushered him into the hall. "What are you doing here? It's Parent/Teacher night, everyone will be arriving soon. You sooo can not be here."

"Look, I have something important to tell you and I didn't think it should wait," Angel firmly told the young girl.

"Well can you like hurry up, so you can move on to the part where you're not here?" Buffy looked around frantically, terrified that Snyder, the little troll would find them.

"Giles told your mother about you being the Chosen One," Angel patiently explained to Buffy, "I thought you should know what was going on."

"Oh thank God, I'm so glad I didn't have to do that." Buffy thought for a minute, "How'd she take it? Was she mad?" Suspicion suddenly dawned on the petite blond, "How exactly is it that you know this?"

"I know you're busy, I'll wait in the library with Giles so you don't have to deal with him alone." Coat billowing dramatically, Angel ignored the question from the fuming blond and left her to her Snyder inflicted duties.

~*~*~

"Giles...Angel just told the younger me about you telling mom." Buffy told the watcher. "He's waiting in the library for you...and I think he expects her to be pissed at you, but from what I'm getting she's more pissed at Angel than you."

"She's not the only one," Giles muttered, as he reached for the door. "I'm happy to see that you are able to utilise the memory changes, Buffy. I believe we can use it to our advantage.

"It's getting really easy. I suddenly get a memory from when I lived through this time. It's like a vision...sort of. That tells me there's a memory change. I just tell you about the vision," Buffy shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yes, well that is excellent news." Giles smiled at her. "Right then, we had best be on our way. While we're at the school's Parent/Teacher night, what will you two be doing?"

"We're heading over to the caves. We're gonna take the digging thingies you got us and make a start on getting the treasure. We'll probably be late, so we'll take the key you gave us," Buffy informed him as she and Spike moved to hug Dawn and Joyce goodbye.

~*~*~

Buffy and Spike worked well together. Spike had come to the conclusion that Buffy was certainly better to work with than the minions he'd had the last time he'd done this. In his estimation, they'd be through to the chamber in minutes. He wasn't wrong.

When they got into the cavern, Spike walked directly over to the fabled ring of Amara. Picking it up, he silently handed it over to Buffy. Moving away, he grabbed one of the smaller boxes, they had thought to bring with them and started to move around the room, placing specific items in the box. Over his shoulder, he directed his words at Buffy, "Just let me pick up the magical things, Slayer, and then we can pack up the rest."

"How do you know which ones are magical?" Buffy asked curiously.

"I can sense 'em. Magic always leaves a residual scent," he explained offhandedly.

Once all the magical items had been found and packed into the small box, Spike marked it and left it by the entrance. The two of them then started to systematically go through the room and pack up the rest of the treasure. The companionable silence that they were working in was suddenly shattered by Buffy's exclamation of shocked indignation.

"I can't believe he just did that!" Buffy exclaimed furiously.

"What's that, luv?" Spike focused on her, his curiously piqued.

"Angel, he just took credit for taking out the annoying one."