Buffy had complicated feelings over that fact. Undrained -- Kendra's body pooling blood as she sank next to the body. The cops barging in. Buffy barely able to process the arrest while still frozen with so many other things. Guilt. Grief. Betrayal. A creeping, growing resolution. It was that moment -- running from the police -- that had first brought her squarely into Spike's consideration as more than just another Slayer to be sliced and served. A deal, brokered long before he was souled or chipped.

A deal, Buffy's stomach turned as she thought about it, for this very vampire's safety. Let Spike and Drusilla go? Save the world. Had it ever really been a choice? Still, she never stopped regretting it.

These thoughts are abandoned for the sake of action. Buffy stepped mechanically to the right and left only an expendable piece of thigh to take the blow. To bleed -- shallowly, through a ragged tear in the denim. So the Slayer whirled with her weight on her opposite leg, chopping diagonally through the air and towards Drusilla's neck.