Is this Faith?  Woo hoo.  She'll keep Spike busy. 

Terrific chapter. 

Exellent, i don't think the scoobies can help her or even Angel.  Angel will use this as an excuse of why they are destined to be when in fact they are very different.  She's much more like Spike then Angel.  Like Spike she loved while soulles.  I do think however that she's underestemating how loyal Spike is.   If the soul can't be lost then he would still stand by her her even going as far as fighting evil with her if she chooses too.  Hell, he might even get a soul himself just so he can be with her and make her suffering bearable by sharing it.  And yes she was an evil vamp, yet like soulles Spike she didn't go overboard with the evil like Angelus and Buffy really didn't want to kill Kendra, Kendra gave her no choice.

Ah, and Faith arrives.  Glad to see such a quick update to this intriguing story. :)

So Buffy called....but wants to disappear.
Nice to see Angel being the voice of calm, knowing how devastating it is to suddenly get the soul back.
Poor Spike, with a vague location clue, but no answers.
Then Faith shows up.

Excellent chapter. You managed to bring out real emotion both for Spike and Buffy's old friends, and the atmosphere of the scenes and the character's reactions were different but powerful.

After learning about the crisis for Buffy and how it's affecting everyone, and desperate to know more, the sudden return of the Council's search for Buffy and the question of why is placed perfectly. For vampires, an attack by crossbow is an almost mundane event and it shows that the world keeps going even if for Spike it feels like his immediate loss of Buffy overweighs everything. It reminded me of the scene in The Body when Joyce has died, and Xander had double-parked his car, too upset to care about minding rules; then, we see a cop placing a ticket on his car from the window as the real world keeps turning normally no matter how it feels to an individual.

I thought you handled Buffy's characterization particularly well and in a unique way. The soul has often been treated as nothing but a conscience, though usually powerful enough to force a world of guilt on a vampire they can't ignore. I'm glad you are viewing it as a part of what makes Buffy who she is and that it plays a part in her personality as a whole. Her feelings in the beginning reveal a little of the Angel/Angelus divide, but in a way that makes sense and doesn't lessen her past or vampire self. It wasn't that Buffy was controlled by evil when without her soul, but she truly isn't the same person now from then. I liked the hints we got from Giles and Angel talking about having one soul or one demon only and how Buffy will feel. She isn't only the soul of the Slayer, but she still has a demon that wishes to be with its mate, and she doesn't separate herself from it in order to hate Spike.

I'm very interested in seeing where you take this story and handle the characters. This was a wonderful chapter, keep up the good work.