Adam Pierson felt the zing of a quickening buzz along his skin. He received no knowledge from the event like he would have if he was directly involved, but he knew he was close enough to find the location. He hurried towards where he felt the power surge emit from. It didn’t take Adam long to find the beheaded body, but which ever Immortal had done the deed was long gone.

Adam pulled his cell phone out to take a picture of the body. Then, he dialed the number of one of his fellow Watchers. “Come on, Rupert, answer the damned phone,” he muttered under his breath.

“Rupert Giles speaking,” the Brit said in lieu of a greeting.

Adam let out a sigh of relief. “Rupert, Adam here. I have a picture to send you for identification.”

Giles nodded his head at his protégée, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. “Send it to Wesley, Adam.”

Adam punched a few buttons on his cell phone, and within seconds the picture appeared on Wesley’s monitor. After a quick search of the Watcher’s database, there was a hit.

Giles crossed the room to peer at the monitor. “The Immortal’s name was Trucker Ward. His first appearance on the Watcher’s radar was 200 years ago. Any ideas who might have killed him?”

Adam looked around the alley while he examined his own senses. Nobody knew that he himself was an Immortal too. “No idea. There are no clues here. The alley was deserted when I got here.”

“You better get out of there before the cops show up, Adam,” Giles urged his fellow Watcher. “It won’t make Travers happy if you’re caught near a body. You know we’re to observe and record only.”

“Oh stop the bull, Rupert,” Adam laughed while he walked as inconspicuously as possible away from the body and the alley. “If the Slayer’s true identity emerged tomorrow you’d have a hell of a time keeping your cool.”

“No more than you and your Methos fascination.” Giles watched Wesley flag Ward’s file as closed, assailant unknown for the Watcher who observed the now dead Immortal. “You’re still trying to prove his existence. At least I know my quarry is real.”

“Whatever. No matter how many times I tell you I’m not investigating that myth, you ignore me. Talk to you soon.” Adam rolled his eyes while he hung up the phone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

“You’ve accumulated a lot of stuff here, Slayer,” Spike observed while he circled the room.

“It’s hard not to after so much time. You of all people know that.” Buffy carefully cleaned her sword, and she placed it on the weapons display hanging on the wall. “It’s getting harder to hide though. Used to be a person could just pick up and move. No questions asked.”

Spike nodded his head. “True. Modern life does require a paper trail.” He smirked. “Well, unless you’re a bloodsucking fiend.”

Illyria changed from Fred’s appearance back to her own encased body form. The God King wandered around the spacious warehouse dwelling. She listened to the Slayer and the half breed talk while she processed the information she had gathered from the beheading of the worthless sack of festering pus passing himself off as a greater being. In a different time and place, Illyria would have shown the Immortal how wrong he was really was, but she was a different being now.

Buffy moved to the phone where she made a fast call. “Eddie, can you find me some blood?” She paused for a second. “Pig’s blood, preferably. Yes, as much as possible. This will be a necessity from now on.”

“Who was that?” Spike asked when Buffy hung up the phone. He’d heard a familiar British accent coming from the other end of the receiver.

“One of my employees. I met his great grandfather over a century ago, and they’ve been in on the secret ever since.” Buffy gave Spike a sly grin. Boy, would he be surprised when he met Eddy, but now it was time for her vampire to see something else she had. Buffy went to Spike, slid her arm into his, and led him towards another room. She threw open the door.

When Buffy switched on the light, Spike let out a surprised gasp. The room was covered in portraits of both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Amongst them he found the members of his vampiric family and the Scoobies. He noticed that his picture wasn’t among them. “What’s all this?”

“I didn’t realize that this was a parallel dimension for nearly 3000 years. I just figured it was some kind of hell where I couldn’t die without losing my head.” Buffy moved to stand by what looked like a piece of Grecian art forcibly removed from a wall. “Then, I met Kakistos in 499AD in Rome.”

Spike tilted his head. “Why is that name familiar?”

“He was a vamp in our world. He was so old he had cloven hands and feet, actually.” Buffy turned to study the painting. “He made old punch mouth look pretty.”

“Right, right. I remember now.” Spike nodded. “What ever happened to that old sod?”

“Faith and I killed him with a really big stake.” Buffy chuckled. “Strangely enough, he went by the same name here. That’s how I recognized him.”

“What was he like as a human?” Spike stepped closer to study the painted mural.

“Handsome, charismatic, and compelling. Everything you’d expect from a cult leader.” Buffy moved to another painting that was more Scandinavian in origins. It showed a pretty blond girl surrounded by rabbits. “I found Anya a few centuries later.”

Spike chuckled. “I thought demon girl hated rabbits.”

“Not until Olaf cheated on her. He said she smelled like rabbits.” Buffy shook her head. “I took her and her family under my wings for several centuries until the last one died without having any children.”

“Anyone else?” Spike asked suspiciously. He now wondered if Buffy had tried to seek out his own counterpart. Although he’d tried to hide most of his former existence, he knew that he revealed a lot of himself to her during their days before Glory.

“I never ran across the Master, not that I wanted to. I found Darla on her death bed. She really did die of syphilis here as did Angel. Drusilla died in service of God.”

“Slayer,” Spike growled, but his heart lurched in his chest when she let out a happy giggle. “What did you do?”

Buffy sauntered over to Spike. She touched the side of his face. “I’ve had many lovers over the years, Spike. I thought everyone I knew at home was dead. I’m not who I used to be.”

“Do you think I care about that?” Spike snarled. He wrapped his arms around Buffy’s waist and tightened his grip. He really wanted to get to know this matured and wonderful woman before him. “I could not condemn you for finding solace in your circumstances. I just want to know if you corrupted innocent William?”

“No. When I looked at him all I could remember was a certain cocky, pain in the ass vampire.” Buffy grinned. “I have a special wall just for you.”

Spike’s face mirrored the surprise he felt. “A special wall?”

“I’m here with the blood,” Eddie called out as he stepped into his employer’s living quarters. He was surprised to see a tall woman he didn’t recognize standing in the middle of Buffy’s apartment. “Uh, hey, is Miss Summers around.”

“She is in the other room with the half breed.” The woman waved a negligent arm towards the portrait room.

Buffy grinned when she heard Eddie’s voice. “Come meet your great grandson, Spike.”

“What?” Spike’s jaw dropped. Did that mean his counterpart survived getting TB and actually lived long enough to reproduce?

“No vamps here,” Buffy giggled. “The William here married a sweet young woman.” She linked her arm with Spike’s again. “Come on. Like you, Eddie is one of a kind.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

“Explain weirded out to me,” Angel urged Willow. They started to walk to the Hyperion to hide out for the day and from the rain.

“It’s hard to explain really.” Willow chewed on her bottom lip. “I think…” She hesitated while she carefully chose her words. “That when I resurrected Buffy, it wasn’t our Buffy.”

“What?” Angel tensed while his senses became alert. “Who the hell was it?”

“I don’t know.” Willow shook her head. “I didn’t even know anything was wrong until after I took a sabbatical with an old witch I met in Brazil. She opened my eyes to the things around me. That’s when I noticed.”

“Noticed what exactly, Willow?”

“Buffy has power, but it’s not Slayer power. She stole whatever power from the demon she first touched after I brought her here. Then, when ever she touched anyone she was able to learn how to be our Buffy from our memories.” Willow shook her head again. “I don’t know how I missed all of this before.”