Summary: One night. That was all Buffy thought she'd be spending with Spike. He'd tell her how he killed her sister slayers, and in exchange, he'd get cash and one "get out of petty evil free" card. Instead, after a surprise ambush and several tranquilizer darts, they both wake up in an alternate dimension to find that they're now players in a life-or-death game set in Bizarro Sunnydale. To survive, they'll have to be the last ones standing--or figure out who brought them here in the first place and why.
Sounds easy, right? After all, it's not like she hasn't worked with Spike to take down a baddie before. Unfortunately, their fellow competitors are kind of familiar.
Like, really familiar.
You could say they know them just as well as they know themselves. 
Banner by the talented DirtyAim

Categories: Season 5
Characters: Buffy, Spike
Genres: Action/Adventure, Apocalyptic/Dystopian, Dramedy, Fighting, HEA/HFN, Hurt/Comfort, Slow-Burn
Warnings: Adult Language, Buffy/Other (Temp), Character Death, Spike/Other (Temp), Vampire!Buffy, Violence
Event: Trapped Challenge 2020
Completed: No Chapters: 12
Word count: 69,986 Hit Count: 22,752 ePub Downloads: 182
Published: October 28, 2020 Updated: January 07, 2023


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1. Prologue by bookishy - Likes: 52 Comments: 36 Word Count: 2,874 Hit Count: 3,636 Published: October 28, 2020

Thanks to MaggieLaFey for her generous beta-ing, and continued willingness to be tortured by US punctuation conventions. Any mistakes still present are my own. 

2. Chapter 2 by bookishy - Likes: 40 Comments: 22 Word Count: 6,184 Hit Count: 1,979 Published: November 01, 2020

Big thanks to MaggieLaFey for the always excellent beta-ing skills. 

3. Chapter 3 by bookishy - Likes: 34 Comments: 21 Word Count: 10,366 Hit Count: 2,794 Published: February 26, 2021

It was never my intention to leave this update so long, especially because I always wanted to use this intro to say thanks to everyone reading and especially thanks for the Author of the Month nod in January, as it really was the high note of a chaotic month. Please accept this humble offering of 10k of bickering and some light peril but mostly bickering. 

As always, so many thanks to MaggieLaFey, who allowed me to strategize at her for thirty minutes about a piece of actual literal fluff and then I DIDN'T EVEN DO IT. 

4. Chapter 4 by bookishy - Likes: 39 Comments: 20 Word Count: 5,189 Hit Count: 1,697 Published: March 16, 2021

A big thanks as always to MaggieLaFey for her excellent beta-ing, and willingness to let me message her at all hours about jokes I wrote but won't let her read for two weeks.

5. Chapter 5 by bookishy - Likes: 42 Comments: 24 Word Count: 6,677 Hit Count: 1,694 Published: May 18, 2021

A big, big thank-you to GirlyTek for her help with this chapter, and for going above and beyond the call of duty and actually finding a specific truck that matches up with all my haphazard descriptions--a 1980 Ford F150!--so we can move forward with specificity rather than this "It is the truck of my mind palace" approach I've been rocking. She even sent pics! 

6. Chapter 6 by bookishy - Likes: 40 Comments: 25 Word Count: 6,066 Hit Count: 1,594 Published: September 07, 2021

This new chapter is meant to honor the shiny new ribbon on this story, and also to make it so pfeifferpack wasn't a liar when she said that all the stories chosen to be featured in that round were "regularly updating." 

Thanks are owed to Girlytek for taking a look and giving much appreciated detail insight. All mistakes are mine. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for everyone commenting, and keeping me sneaking away from work and life craziness to write things, albeit haphazardly and in a manner that is vaguely Whack-A-Mole-esque. 

7. Chapter 7 by bookishy - Likes: 36 Comments: 26 Word Count: 5,124 Hit Count: 1,507 Published: September 23, 2021

A thank you to Girlytek for looking this over! Any mistakes are due to my fiddles. 

(Guys, I got no car notes on this one. Am I an expert now?!!!!) 

8. Chapter 8 by bookishy - Likes: 34 Comments: 22 Word Count: 7,732 Hit Count: 1,488 Published: October 17, 2021

Many, many thank-yous to MaggieLaFey and Girlytek for their invaluable input, especially in helping to reassure me that certain jokes could go back in to this without sending me directly to the bad place. I mean, it might still happen, but I'm feeling better about the company if it does. Any mistakes are due to my own nervous fiddling. 

9. Chapter 9 by bookishy - Likes: 42 Comments: 30 Word Count: 4,035 Hit Count: 2,477 Published: October 24, 2021

This coming Friday is the anniversary of when I first started posting this fic, and I was going to wait to post this chapter until then, as you'll see there's a certain symmetry that just happened to work out this way . . . but dammit, I couldn't wait. So this chapter is meant to mark the anniversary week of when I first started posting this chapter. 

(Spike's not the only one who struggles with patience). 

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this fic and its sporadic updates for a year, and a special thank-you to MaggieLaFey and Girlytek for their insight and feedback, and, in Maggie's case, unwavering dedication to making sure I was consistent with my capital Shes and Hers and Yours. "I think I caught most of them," I, in my hubris, said. She found thirty more. 

10. Chapter 10 by bookishy - Likes: 31 Comments: 24 Word Count: 5,834 Hit Count: 1,443 Published: March 01, 2022

Thanks are owed to Girlytek, for her great input, her push off the ledge of posting indecision and for her suggestion of a de facto tagline for this chapter, which is "Your only chance with me was while YOU were unconscious." And also thanks to MaggieLaFey for general cheerleading as I rolled about in the stew of various waffling feelings for two straight months. 

Also, thanks to everyone who has commented along the way. I told myself I couldn't post until I was caught up in responding, and I AM. Hearing everyone's theories on this fic especially has been a blast. 

This kicks off what I am considering to be Part II of this story. A bit of calm here, but we're about to meet a whole lot of people . . . . 

11. Chapter 11 by bookishy - Likes: 29 Comments: 20 Word Count: 5,300 Hit Count: 1,232 Published: December 15, 2022

It's been a year, guys, which is my only excuse for the delay. But I hope you will accept this holiday gift of Spike waking up at long last. 

A big shout-out to Girlytek for giving this a gentle nudge out the door, and for making sure Spike didn't sound like Hermione. Also a thank-you to everyone who's been patiently supporting and commenting. I am so far behind on replying to comments they will soon be putting me in comment jail, but I really do love and appreciate every single one of them. It's been a delight to see people so engaged in something that, starting out, I worried might be a little too "out there." 

Last time on Unfavorable Odds: Spike was healing, but wouldn't wake up, inspiring Buffy to give him some of her, super special Slayer blood in an attempt to do so before they ran out of other blood. But when it didn't seem to work, she headed out to hospital with a plan to also do some secret recon on a new theory she had about who might be doing this, leaving a very disgruntled human Buffy back at Cordelia's mansion alone . . . 

12. Chapter 12 by bookishy - Likes: 37 Comments: 20 Word Count: 4,605 Hit Count: 1,211 Published: January 07, 2023

Thanks to Girlytek for being willing to take a speedy look at this. I've been excited to get to these chapters for so very long, as Buffy and Spike are about to go through some things. 

Also, a big thank-you to MaggieLaFey for her surprise fics in the Unfavorable Odds universe. Spike is definitely having a much better time in her fic than he is here.