The sun was shining brightly, the sky clear and blue, the students in their maroon graduation robes with that annoying song playing over and over and over again as they all walked down the aisle to their seats. 

Buffy heard none of it, saw none of it. 

She and Angel had buried Faith last night. They’d buried her in the back of the mansion, sprinkling holy water on the dirt…just in case. Her sister was gone, truly lost to her. And Buffy was a wreck because of it. But she wasn’t allowed to be, she couldn’t be. That morning, with everyone eating and joking like old times – except she couldn’t remember old times being quite like that – it went a long way towards easing her tension. 

But then dawn came and everyone reluctantly went off to their individual jobs. There were students to organize, weapons to check…an army to mobilize. 

It was war and Faith was forgotten. No one said anything about it, no one talked about her, commented on her death – and Buffy’s rather large part in it – and no one mourned for her. No one but Buffy. Buffy had cried in Angel’s arms last night, cried and demanded answers that he didn’t have.

Why? Whywhywhywhywhywhy? Why had Faith turned? Was it Buffy’s fault? Yes, she firmly believed it was. Angel hadn’t argued that point, but he had offered that maybe there was something wrong with Faith before. Her childhood wasn’t great, there was emotional abuse, most likely physical, and probably sexual abuse in her past. She wasn’t stable to begin with. 

And yet Buffy hadn’t cared. She loved faith – sister – and hated that she, that she Buffy Summers, had had to kill her. Because Faith had poisoned Angel. Because Angle was Buffy’s world/ because without Angle, there was no Buffy. Not really. Physically, yes, mentally, maybe, but emotionally…no.

She could maybe survive if Angel wasn’t in her life, but Buffy knew she wouldn’t like who she’d become.

Willow sat beside her, fidgeting as the last of the students filed in. “I don’t like this waiting,” she whispered to her best friend. They’d agreed, right before they left the library early this morning, to keep in touch no matter where they all ended up.

If the Council was after all of them, then it was in everyone’s best interest to relay as much information as possible to everyone else. Plus, no one – not after the closeness of this morning – wanted to lose touch with the only people who understood them.

“I know,” Buffy nodded just as the music stopped. She stiffened and felt everyone else do so as well. They were nervous; this was all new to them. But she had confidence in their abilities. That and their self-preservation.

“Congratulations,” Snyder said in that sneering voice of his. Snyder was oblivious to what was about to happen then again, he usually was when it came to his student body. Or what was really happening. “To the class of 1999.  You all proved more or less adequate.  This is a time of celebration, so: sit still and be quiet.” He paused, looked out at his students. The Goths, the jocks, the losers – they were all losers – the so-called popular ones. “Spit out that gum.” He said to a nervous Harmony.

“Please welcome our distinguished guest speaker: Richard Wilkins III.” He turned to the side, ready to greet the mayor and caught someone – “I saw that gesture.  You see me after graduation.” 

Finally turning and clapping, he eyed the rest of the assembled – parents, students and teachers alike – until nearly everyone was clapping as well. That Buffy Summers wasn’t but then Snyder expected nothing less from her. He was, to say the least, surprised that she managed to graduate. Then again, he heard she had a mean boyfriend; maybe he’d offered to beat up the teachers if his girl hadn’t. Typical.

Wilkins walked to the podium, a smile on his face. Real, genuine – but then he was about to become some super demon, so he got to be all giddy about it. “Well,” he said as he spotted Buffy in the crowd. He was going to kill that little girl. And her blood sucking vampire of a boyfriend first chance he got.

“What a day this is! A Special day. Today is our centennial the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale, and I know what that means to all you kids: not a darn thing.  Because today something much more important happens; today you all graduate from high school. Today all the pain, all the work, all the excitement is finally over. And what’s a hundred years of history compared to that?  You know what kids?”

“Oh my God,” Buffy whispered to Willow as realization dawned on her. “He’s going to do the entire speech!”

“Man,” Willow mumbled back, some of the tension leaving her body as she realized that they had a little time. Not a lot, but some. If Wilkins’ speech was like any other she’d heard over the years, they had time. “Why doesn’t he just ascend already?”

“Evil!” Buffy agreed.

“…For all of you it may be that there is a place in Sunnydale’s history, whether you like it or not. It’s been a long road getting here. For you… for Sunnydale. There has been achievement, joy, good times… and there has been grief.” Faith was dead, he knew that. She was dead and that bitch Summers killed her. Oh, he’d get her back. Yes, he would. “There’s been loss.”

  Buffy shivered. She knew who he was talking about. She knew that he was speaking of Faith. Sister. And she knew, somehow, that he knew Faith was dead. Dead in an effort to save Angel. I’m sorry, sister. 

“Some people who should be here today… aren’t. But we are; it’s out journey’s end. And what is a journey? Is it just… distance traveled? Time spent?  No. It’s what happens on the way, it the things that happen to you. At the end of the journey you’re not the same. Today is about change. Graduation doesn’t just mean your circumstances change, it means you do. You ascend… to a higher level.” 

They stiffened again – Xander, Cordelia, Willow, Buffy, Oz. they knew what was happening next. Oh, Wilkins was clever with his words, but they knew. “Nothing will ever be the same.  Nothing.”  

He looked up then as the moon quickly made its way across the sun, blocking out the bright rays. Buffy looked up as well, knew this was what they were waiting for and braced herself. Wilkins flinched in pain, eyes still locked with Buffy’s. He shook the pain off and continued. “And so as we look back on…” Another spear of pain but he wasn’t letting that stop him. This was still his town and this was still his responsibility. “On the events that brought us to this day…”

Buffy slid to the edge of her seat, waiting, waiting…she took her hat off – who invented those things, anyway? And waited. It was nearly time. “Come on,” she whispered, “Come on.”

“We…we must all…” this time Wilkins trailed off with a scream. The audience looked at each other. Parents and teachers wondering. Students knowing. “It has begun,” he smiled at Buffy and several people turned to look at her. “My destiny. It’s a little sooner then I expected I had this whole section on civic pride…” he looked at his cue cards and grimaced in pain. “ But I guess we’ll just skip to the big finish! You know,” and he was talking directly to Buffy again. “Faith really would’ve loved this.”

Buffy held his eyes, cold and hard. She smirked then, a knowing movement of her lips. Just enough to let Wilkins know that Faith was, indeed, dead. And that she had killed her. Sister.

Wilkins’ body began to stretch, to form into something…else. His clothes splits, his body becoming wider and…longer. Geez, a snake? He was becoming a snake? 

“Typical,” Buffy mumbled as she stood, watching Wilkins with a calculating gleam in her eye. Not yet, not yet… “I hate snakes.” 

Snyder leaned back in his chair, clearly taken aback; this wasn’t in the script! It happened suddenly, much faster than even Wilkins thought it would. Suddenly he grew, taller, taller, wider, stretching, stretching…he was a big snake-like demon with clawed mandibles surrounding his now really big mouth. It was a mad rush, faculty scrambling out of their seats, parents startled, frightened. 

Students began to stand now, too. But they didn’t run.

“Now!” Buffy shouted and the fight began.

They all knew their jobs. Flamethrowers, archers, the perimeter people. Those who were fighting with Angel. Angel whom Buffy could now feel, his presence was always with her, since he’d Marked her. Like a tingle along her nerve endings, like a comforting presence that called to her and that reassured her.

She slowly made her way forward, trusting Willow, Oz, Xander, and Cordelia to coordinate the student body in keeping Wilkins’ minions at bay. She had a snake to take care of.

  “Hey!” She shouted just as she watched the former mayor of Sunnydale – currently a giant snake – swallowed Principle Snyder…whole. Oh, gross! “Oh, Richard,” she said in a sing-song voice, waiting for the snake/mayor to look at her. “Hey, Dick!” 

Those large reptilian eyes focused on her, just as Buffy knew they would. She smiled, slow, sly, knowing…smug and cunning. “You think you won,” Buffy said in a strong voice, making sure that the giant snake could hear her – where were his ears? “You haven’t, you aren’t even close.” She pulled the knife she used to kill Faith from the holder Angel had strapped to her back early this morning. 

“You remember this? You remember giving it to Faith? You remember how she loved it, how she killed with it?” Buffy took another step closer, making sure to keep those large slit eyes locked with hers. “I took it from Faith, I took it from her and then stuck it in her gut…slowly, deeply. She bled a lot, you know.” 

Buffy glanced down, making sure that Wilkins/snake followed her gaze. “Just slid in her like she was butter, soft, warm butter.”  She was getting to him, Buffy knew it; he was growling now, a strange growl/hiss that sent her slayer-sense clamoring. She wanted to risk a glance behind her, wanted to know what was happening to everyone else. Angel. She needed to see where Angel was. Though she knew he was alive, safe, she couldn’t tell specifics.

“She’s dead,” Buffy told him. “In case you didn’t know that. But then you knew the cure to Angel’s poison was slayer blood. Did you think that I wouldn’t do it?”

  “Thought more of you,” the former mayor said in a strangely echoing voice that still held a trace of his playfulness. “Actually, I thought you would do it yourself, what with you being so self-sacrificing and all, so in love,” he mocked, “With the vampire.”

  “With another perfectly healthy slayer out there?” Buffy laughed. “No, she poisoned him,” Buffy said, voice hard. “She gets to cure him.”

  “Even though it was your sister?” He laughed. “You’re darker than I imagined. I think my Faith would like you like this, Miss Summers, I think now, now that you and she are the same, that maybe you’d get along better. But then,” his large body leaned further down, intimidating and doing a damn fine job of it. “You’re a vampire’s whore, aren’t you?”

Distantly, Buffy heard Angel growl and knew it was in response to Wilkins’ comment. She smiled again, reaching a hand up to touch her neck. “I’m a vampire’s mate,” she corrected, twisting her wrist to better show off the knife. “You want to get this back from me?” She changed the subject, brought it back to what she needed him to be on. Faith made him careless, and Buffy needed him to be just that.

  “You want to get this knife, Faith’s knife, back from me…Dick?”

  He roared then, his large body crashing down where Buffy stood…where she no longer did. Racing around him using every bit of slayer strength and speed, Buffy ran through the school, weaving around hallways and heading the easily remembered path to the library.

  She raced through it, ignoring the memories – good and bad – and out the back door. Over the parking lot, through the bushes to where Giles crouched and waited. Waited to blow up the school. It was with a gleeful kind of look that he waited, watching as Buffy dived beside him. With a jaunty whistle, the former watcher, former librarian, current fugitive, depressed the plunger.

  The building went up in a giant ball of fire. Buffy hoped that everyone stuck to the plan and moved the students off school grounds. The debris falling from the sky would rain down further than just the school, but the concentrated explosion was in the immediate area. And there was former Mayor Richard Wilkins III in all his giant snake glory…. 

Still alive. 

“Oh, shit,” Buffy whispered, sharing a panicked glance with Giles. 

“Run.” 

Without hesitation, Buffy did just that, grabbing Giles by the arm and racing through the still falling debris, through the woods that surrounded the perimeter of the school grounds, circling around the front. The gang was there, waiting for them. Death permeated the air, death and fire. There were bodies lying all around, vampire bites, broken necks, stab wounds. 

Death and fire. 

The fire department – alerted by Giles just prior to his plunging the detonator – were late. The fire was spreading. And fast. 

“Angel!” Buffy screamed, racing into her lover’s arms. Oz was holding an unconscious Willow, blood running down the redhead’s pale face. She was breathing, Buffy could tell that, but didn’t know the extent of her injuries. “Oz?” 

“Don’t know,” he shook his head, not looking that great himself. 

“Take her to the hospital,” Giles instructed, peering at Willow’s still face. “Now.” 

Without another word, Oz did just that, moving as fast as he could to where his van was parked two blocks down. Xander looked after them, then turned to Cordelia. He draped an arm around her, smoky, bruised, scared, and held tightly for a moment. 

 “Time for plan B,” Buffy said. 

“Do we have a Plan B?” Cordelia demanded. “And why didn’t anyone tell me we had a plan B?!” 

“No,” Wesley said as he hobbled up to the group. His fighting skills left…much to be desired and he knew that. The Council taught their watchers, but not, apparently against actual odds. His ankle was sprained, his knee swollen, and his entire right side ached as if he’d been run over by a truck. In actuality, he’d been thrown against the stone wall of the school. It hurt just as bad. 

“No, we don’t have a Plan B.” 

“Can I panic now?” Xander asked in a low voice as he turned back to the school where the mayor/snake was now rising from the flames. “And I thought you said it was supposed to hurt him!” 

“It did,” Angel nodded, face grim. Even he was bleeding, not seriously, but enough that Buffy wanted to take him home and fuss over him. Plus, her head hurt. “He’s injured, seriously so. But not enough, not yet. We have to kill him. Now.” 

“I agree,” Giles said, walking over to the sidewalk to gather sword, crossbow and arrows, stakes. “And it has to be now.” 

Buffy took the sword, Angel producing one strapped to his back. She’d ask him later how he fared, if the demons he’d threatened, ah, recruited, showed, if they helped, if they didn’t turn. But then she saw Willy’s body…yes, Buffy realized as more grief welled inside her. Yes, they had. Willy had. Man, she really did like him. Well, liked beating up on him, but liked him. He’d given her a whole box of holy water for Christmas. 

“Well then,” Buffy said, standing in the front of their depleted group. “Charge.” 

As one, the remaining six moved forward, picking up straggling students as they went. Those few remaining who hadn’t run…or died, were willing to see this to the end. Good. “What’s the plan?” One of them yelled. 

“Find the snake,” Buffy called over her shoulder, not looking back. “Stab him. Repeat.” 

“The ocean,” Angel suddenly said, still running next to Buffy. They were only a few paces from the flames now. Dangerous to all of them. “Maybe we can drive him to the ocean.” 

“What good will that do?” Cordelia demanded. Her heels were so not made for running. But she hadn’t had time to change between their impromptu party this morning and, well, graduation. 

“Don’t know,” Angel admitted. “Drown him?” 

“It’s worth a try,” Giles shouted, his breathing labored. He really was out of shape. And to think, he was a watcher. Truly a shame. “How far is the beach?” 

“Couple of miles,” Xander figured, looking west. “Not that far…when not forcing a giant snake that wants to eat you there.” 

Still, it was their only plan. Or their only new plan, as their original only plan was now in ruins. Literally. And spreading. The fire was spreading quickly, the fire trucks only now arriving on the scene. Perfect, more people in the way.

“Is he moving?” Wesley asked as they slowed, watched. “He is!” 

He was. Slowly, slithering his large body through the raging flames that weakened him, but did no noticeable damage to his large scales. And he was moving…west. 

“Attack,” Buffy told them anyway. He wasn’t getting away, not after all the trouble she’d – they all had – gone through. “I don’t care where, I don’t care how, just…put as many holes into him as possible.” 

Buffy couldn’t have any idea that what she was saying was pointless. Not in the fact that stabbing him repeatedly would harm him – it would. But in the fact that the demon needed water. Salt water. Ah, Richard thought as he slowly made his way towards the siren call of the sea. The irony. This wasn’t how he’d pictured his ascension, this wasn’t how he pictured his new world order. 

Irony. What a pain in his ass. Not that he had one anymore but that wasn’t the point. Irony, the Fates weren’t cooperating with his new world order. In the near distance, Richard could see the sea, the scent of the ocean was nirvana, the salt a balm to his itchy skin, a salve to his wounds. 

A stab wound, the slice of a sword – that was the slayer, Richard knew it. Her vampire lover was right there with her, using some kind of axe to hack through him. Yeah, that hurt. “Ow!” He roared in pain when Buffy and Angel swung simultaneously and cut almost halfway through his torso. 

“Hurt…Dick?” Buffy asked with a smirk as she and her lover easily kept up with his progress. Must…move…faster. The rest of her annoying little gang was trying to take his tail off – ow, that hurt, too. 

“You don’t know what you’ve done!” He said. But it wasn’t to Buffy. No, it was to the Fates. This was his day! This was his!

There, right there was salvation. Was help. Was…home. Faster now, he had to get there faster. That annoying gang of hers was doing a darned fine job in trying to slice his tail off. 

With a final roar, Richard Wilkins III dove into the ocean, the salt water seeping into his open cuts, healing that which the slayer and her friends inflicted. A hundred years ago, when he started down this path, Richard read up on everything he could. Not one of his sources had mentioned that, when ascending to pure demonhood, one needed saltwater to live. 

And he’d read the fine print. Carefully. Twice. It wasn’t there, he knew it wasn’t. 

Surfacing a hundred yards off the coast, watching the slayer and her lover, her friends as they stood there, he laughed. 

“It’s the irony that gets you every time,” he called before moving under the surface, further out to sea. 

Buffy stared for a long, long moment. The fire was under control now, though several blocks in every direction from the school were destroyed. People were dead, more than she knew. Buffy didn’t know what happened to Willow or Oz, if they made it to the hospital, or if Willow was okay. Please let her be okay. 

“What just happened?” Xander asked finally, breaking the strange silence that circled them in the midst of chaos. 

“He’s a fish?” Cordelia asked. “Maybe like that Loch Ness one?” 

“You mean I didn’t have to blow up the school?” Buffy demanded. “He’d have had to swim away anyway?” 

“Apparently,” Giles nodded, equally stunned. 

“That wasn’t in any of the books,” Wesley concurred. 

“So now what?” Xander asked. 

“We go see if Willow’s okay,” Buffy said and turned, twining her hand with Angel’s. “And then we all leave town, like we planned. The Council’s still after us, don’t forget.” 

“Weekly calls,” Angel reminded everyone, though he’d be just as happy never to see any of them again. “And then in six months we meet up in Vegas.”

Buffy hugged everyone, briefly, quickly, and climbed into Angel’s car. She’d see Willow, speak with Oz for a bit – thank him again for the support and friendship he’d shown her – and then she and Angel were off to parts unknown. But then so long as he was with her, did it matter? 

Willow was okay. Concussion – her second one. The doctors thought she’d be well enough to leave in a couple of days, but they were swamped with incoming causalities from the destroyed high school and couldn’t talk with them for long. Buffy denied all knowledge of the incident. 

She and Angel drove away not an hour after seeing the mayor into the Pacific Ocean. Oz was reluctant to see them go, but promised to meet up with them in November in Vegas. The gang already had room reservations under an assumed name.
~~~~~~~~~~
Six months later… 

Buffy curled around Angel’s body, letting his cool stillness comfort her as always. They didn’t meet up with the rest of the gang as promised. Oh, Oz knew they weren’t going to, had always known, but he was the only one. No, now they were in some Pacific island with few structures and fewer residents. The heat of the night was heavy, but Buffy had her own personal air conditioning. 

“What is it, baby?” Angel asked, turning to take her into his arms. In the months that passed, they hadn’t stopped fighting, just limited themselves to the demons that crossed their path. They’d traveled, Angel showing his love things she’d only ever read about, things she never thought to see for herself. 

“I don’t know,” Buffy admitted. “I think I miss the gang.”

“Want to go back? We can still make it to Vegas, say we got held up dodging the Council.” It wouldn’t be a complete lie, over the months the Council had managed to find them…once. But Angel had resources and money, so that time really was a fluke.

“No,” she said immediately. “No, I don’t want to. I have nothing there, not anymore.” 

“What about your mom?” 

“I promised her Christmas,” Buffy reluctantly admitted. “And I think that’s one promise I really do want to keep.” 

He kissed her, cool tongue tasting the wet warmth of her mouth. “I’ll make the arrangements. We can spend a week in Australia, if you want, on the way to Philadelphia.” 

“Okay,” she nodded, smiled. 

“Are you sure there’s nothing else wrong?” He knew her too well, and now that they were truly mated, each bearing the other’s mark, he could tell even better now. 

“I…well.” Buffy sighed. “It’s been a while since we heard from Oz. I’m worried.” 

Angel nodded, “He’ll be alright. And remember, mail here isn’t exactly express.” She chuckled at that. “We’ll find him on our way back,” he promised. “See how he’s doing, okay?” 

“Yeah,” Buffy smiled, kissed him again. “I love you, have I told you that recently?” 

“No,” Angel shook his head mournfully, his teeth nipping at her lower lip. “No, you haven’t.” 

“I do,” Buffy assured him. “Wildly, desperately, love you.” 

“And I you, my heart. My Mate.” 

Rolling until he hovered over her, Angel kissed her deeply, his hands moving over her heated body in slow movements that conveyed his devotion to her and his desire. He wasn’t sure, and didn’t have anyone to ask, but since their mating, since Buffy drank from him, he had the feeling that they were…bonded in more ways than the Marking of the other. 

He had a feeling that he’d just entwined Buffy’s life with his. His immortality was hers. Oh, her slayer healing would slow her aging, but Angel thought it was more than that. But he wasn’t sure. In the end, it didn’t matter. He’d be with Buffy until she was taken from him. Whether by natural age or something else, he’d be with her until she no longer graced this Earth with her presence, her power and light. And then he’d follow her into whatever after life awaited them. 

“Buffy,” he purred as he slipped into her warmth, her inner walls clutching him, drawing her deeper into him. “I love you.” 

“And I love you, my Angel. Forever.”

Previous Part

You Never Know What One Will Do For Love Index        Home