SERIES : the
Trilogy
PAIRING : Buffy/Angel, Spike/Dru
[ALSO minor pairings: Spike/Faith, Raith/Riley, Willow/Oz]
OVERALL RATING : Parts 3,6,9 are
rated NC17. Part 28 is rated R. Otherwise, parts are rated PG14.
SPOILERS : I Will Remember You
& my fic the Challenge
DISCLAIMER : I do not own these characters.
=====================================================================
PART 17 (PG - Tara)
“Angel?”
I was walking toward him.
“I can’t
see, who are you?”
“You
already know me, hold on.” It was overkill, a little too bright. “Better?”
“Tara
was it?”
“You
remember.”
“I
couldn’t forget, you saved my life, gave me a new one, so why am I here? Why
would you give me something and take it all away?”
“I
thought there were some things better left talked about person to person. Or
rather person to me. I’ve been listening to you Angel.”
“Not the
very best place to be listening, huh?”
“Angel,
you have so much good in you. I think you need to see a world with no Angel,
you keep acting like you don’t know what you want, when you know exactly what
you want, you just need to see.”
“I don’t
know what I want, I want Buffy to have a normal life, I don’t want her to have
to deal with my baggage, I can’t tell her the things I’ve done. How can I?”
“Angel,
if you want her to love you the way you love her, you have to tell her
everything. She won’t think less of you. Look at her, she’s mourning.” I put my
hand down and swirled it around to allow him to see the world. “Angel, you’re
dying. You came to me because you needed to, but I don’t have to power to send
you back to her, you need to want that bad enough to go on your own Angel, only
you can help her now.”
He
looked down, I could feel his confusion. He wanted what was best for her. Maybe
you should just erase me from her memory. Make the past few years disappear,
take them back. Make her forget, destroy me, take me wherever you want, just… I
cause her too much pain.” His memories and thoughts began to take over the
visions and we floated along the memories he’d made, the memories he relived…
PART 18 (PG – Red Agony)
We are
in his old apartment and Buffy opens the door, comes in and closes it behind
her. She walks over to the bed and sees it's been made. One of his shirts is
laid out on it. She goes over to the bed and reaches for the shirt. Behind her
Angelus steps over to a statue, picks up a necklace hanging from it and puts it
on. Buffy turns and sees him.
“Angel!” Buffy runs to him and kissed him. “Oh, my God! I
was so worried!”
“I didn't mean to frighten you.” He says.
“Where did you go?”
“Been around.”
“Ohhh. Oh, my God!” She hugs him, “I was freaking out!
You just disappeared.”
“What? I took off.” He walks over to the bed and picks up
his shirt.
Obviously confused, Buffy speaks. “But you didn't say
anything. You just left.”
He pulls on the shirt. “Yeah. Like I really wanted to
stick around after that.”
“What?”
“You got a lot to learn about men, kiddo. Although I
guess you proved that last night.”
“What are you saying?”
“Let's not make an issue out of it, okay?” He grabs his
coat and continues, “In fact, let's not talk about it at all. It happened.”
“I, I don't understand. Was it m-me? Was I not good?”
“You were great. Really.” He says with a chuckle, “I
thought you were a pro.”
“How can you say this to me?”
“Lighten up. It was a good time. It doesn't mean like we
have to make a big deal.”
“It *is* a big deal!”
He watched, tears trickling down his face, astounded at
his own cruelty. He walked to her and put his hand on her shoulder, but she
could not feel it, these were memories, shadows of the past, things that would
not change.
“It's what? Bells ringing, fireworks, a dulcet choir of
pretty little birdies? Come on, Buffy. It's not like I've never been there
before.” He reaches his hand up to her face and she jerks back.
“Don't touch me.”
“I should've known you wouldn't be able to handle it.” He
begins to leave.
“Angel!” He turns to her and with tears streaming down
her face she says, “I love you.”
“Love you, too.” He walks out the door saying, “I'll call
you.”
He stood there, watching Buffy fall to the floor in
tears, trying to stop her pain. “I did this to her, look at her.”
“I am, and do you want to know what I see? I see a girl
in love, same as I do know, Angel, every person gets hurt by love.”
“Not like she did.” And we travel to another time,
another place.
“Buffy?” Buffy lays her right hand against the side of
his face. “Is that you?” He says, as he lays on the bed, ill.
“It's me.”
“I didn't want to go without seeing you.” She puts her
finger to his lips to stop him from
talking.
“Angel, I can cure you.”
“It's okay. - I'm ready.”
“Angel listen to me.” And she takes a hold of his
shoulders. “Sit up.” Angel scoots up a little higher, but he is weak and moving
clearly hurts a great deal.
“You're gonna live. You have to live.”
“What way?”
“Drink...” Angel frowns as Buffy takes off her jacket.
“Drink me.”
“No.” Angel shakes his head, appalled.
“It’s the only way.”
“No. - Get away.” He forces himself up. Buffy takes hold
of his right arm as he stands up, looking up at him.
“It’ll save you.”
“It’ll kill you.”
“Maybe not. -. Not if you don't take it all.”
“You can’t ask me to do that.”
“I won’t let you die. I can't. Angel the blood of a
Slayer is the only cure.”
“Faith's...”
“I tried. - I killed her.”
“Then it’s over.” Angel stumbles into the main room. He
has trouble walking straight and Buffy grabs him by the arms and pulls him up
to face her.
“It is never over! I won’t let you die. Drink! Please...”
Buffy looks at him, then pulls back her fist and hits
left temple. His head snaps around but he stays on his feet. He turns back to
look at Buffy and she hits him again. He still doesn’t go down, but it takes
him a little longer to come back up. Buffy hits him a third time and this time
Angel spins back with a growl, vamped out. He just stands there while Buffy
pulls down the shoulder strap of her shirt, then grabs him by the hair at the
back of his head. She looks at him for a moment then firmly pulls his head down
against her neck. For a moment they remain like this, then he suddenly bites
down. Buffy gasps with the pain but holds still. Some blood begins to run out
beneath his lips and down her shoulder. Buffy slowly sinks backwards to the
floor. With Angel lying on top still drinking, Buffy’s left hand reaches out
and finds the pewter pitcher. She crushes it in her hand.
He walks over, watching everything that happened. She
puts her hands against his sides as if she was going to push him off, but kicks
out with her left leg instead, breaking the sofa table in half. She stares up
into his eyes with a tear in the corner of her eye.
“Look at her. She’s scared.”
“No, she’s not Angel, and that’s what scares you.”
“I remember, what it felt like, it hurt, it felt like you
were burning inside. She’s scared.”
Then her eyes drift shut and her head sinks to the side
just as Angel finally rolls off her, panting. His face morphs back to human and
he pushes himself up looking over at Buffy. The redness around the arrow wound
is gone.
“Buffy?” She lies motionless eyes closed. “Buffy!”
“She almost died.”
“She didn’t.”
“Angel, you need to understand something very important
before you have enough power to return to her.”
“I shouldn’t return to her, that’s the point isn’t it? I
hurt her and it’s best if I just stay away, make her forget everything, you can
do that, if the Oracles can erase a day, you can surely erase a couple years.”
“She would remember Angel. She would always remember, she
can’t get away from you, cannot escape the feelings she has and it will always
draw her back to you. You need to see that she would not be better off without
you.”
PART 19 (PG – Never Forget)
We see
Buffy wearing a long flowery dress and she is pacing Angel's apartment. Angel
comes down the steps to his apartment.
“I’m guessing that expression isn’t because they were all
out of fresh OJ at the deli. - What happened?”
“Nothing happened. - I just..”
“Where have you been?”
“I went to see the Oracles. I asked them to turn me
back.”
“What? - Why?” She asks him.
“Because more then ever I know how much I love you.”
“No. No, you didn't.”
“And if I stayed mortal one of us would wind up dead,
maybe both of us. You heard what Mohra said. He said others would come.”
“They always come. And they always will. But that’s my
problem now, not yours, remember?”
“No, I won't just stand by and let you fight, maybe die,
alone.”
“Then we fight together.”
“You saw what happened last night. If anything I’m a
liability to you. You take chances to protect me, and that’s not just bad for
you, it’s bad for the people we were meant to help.”
“So what? You just took a whole 24 hours to weigh the ups
and downs of being a regular Joe and decided it was more fun being a
superhero?”
“You know that’s not it. How can we be together if the
cost is your life, or the lives of others?” Buffy just stares at him and after
a moment he takes her into his arms “I know. I couldn’t tell you. I wasn’t sure
- if I could do it if I woke up with yoou one more morning.”
“I understand. - So, what happens now?”
“The Oracles are giving us back the day, turning back
time, so I can kill Mohra before his blood makes me mortal.”
“When?”
“Another
minute.” She is crying now.
“A minute? No. No, it's not enough time!”
“We don’t have a choice. It’s done.”
“How am I supposed to go on with my life knowing what we
had? What we could have had?”
“You won’t. No one will know but me.”
“Everything we did.”
“It never happened.”
“It did. It did. I know it did! I felt your heart beat.”
“Buffy..” They kiss. Buffy looks over at the clock. The
minute is almost up.
“No! Oh God. It’s not enough time.” He begins to cry and
tries to quiet her.
“Shh, please. Please.” The hold each other tightly both
crying. “Please, please.”
“No. I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget.
I’ll never forget.”
He watches as the memory fades. “She broke the promise.”
“You know that’s not true. She couldn’t, even when she
should have, Angel, her love for you is deeper than time, transcendent of
everything that is me, more powerful than the plans I had for you. I made new
ones, and you are part of that now, and you must learn. How can make you see?”
“You can’t, I don’t believe it, she’s cried so much over
me. Why did you send me back?”
“Back?”
“From hell? From what I deserve, why? She would have been
better without me.”
“Would she have? She doesn’t believe that. Why do you?”
“She can’t believe it about me, but you know the truth, I
wasn’t worth saving, why?”
“It wasn’t I who brought you back, it was her wish for
you.”
“I wasn’t worth it, I’m not. I never was. She wouldn’t
let me go.”
“She wouldn’t because she couldn’t.”
“She should have.”
PART 20 (PG – It’s the Man)
We move to the
hills behind the mansion outside of town. Buffy runs through the bushes,
frantically looking for Angel. She climbs further up the hill and finds him
standing at the top looking out over a peaceful residential area of town.
“Angel.” He hears her
say his name and briefly glances in her direction before looking back out over
the rooftops. Buffy slowly walks over to him.
“I bet half the kids down there are already awake. Lying
in their beds... sneaking downstairs... waiting for day.”
She’s gasping for air, “Angel, please. I need for you to
get inside. Th- there's only a few minutes left.”
“I know. I can smell the sunrise long before it comes.”
“I don’t have time to explain this. You just have to
trust me. That thing that was haunting you...”
“It wasn’t haunting me. It was showing me.”
“Showing you?”
“What I am.”
“Were.”
“And ever shall be. I wanted to know why I was back. Now
I do.”
“You DON’T know. Some great evil takes credit for
bringing you back and you buy it? You just give up?”
“I can’t do it again, Buffy. I can’t become a killer.”
“Then fight it.”
“It’s too hard.”
“Angel, please, you HAVE to get inside.”
“It told me to kill you. You were in the dream. You know.
It told me to lose my soul in you and become a monster again.”
“I know what it told you. What does it matter?”
“Because I wanted to! Because I want you so badly! I want
to take comfort in you, and I know it’ll cost me my soul, and a part of me
doesn’t care.” He sobs. Buffy is at a loss
for words. “Look, I’m weak. I’ve never been anything else. It’s not
the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy. It’s the man.”
“You’re weak. Everybody is. Everybody fails. Maybe this
evil did bring you back, but if it did, it’s because it needs you. And that
means that you can hurt it.” Angel doesn’t
want to believe her.
“Angel, you have the power to do real good, to make
amends. But if you die now, then all that you ever were was a monster.” She looks out at the sky as it begins to lighten. “Angel,
please, the sun is coming up!”
“Just go.”
“I won’t!”
“What, do you think this is simple? You think there’s an
easy answer? You can never understand what I’ve done! Now go!”
“You are not staying here. I won’t let you!” She says
grabbing his arm.
“I said LEAVE!” He
jerks his arm free of her grasp. In her anger and desperation Buffy punches
him. He reacts by shoving her away from him roughly, making her fall face
forward, hard to the ground. “Oh, my God...” he whispers, while crouching over her, he grabs her by the shoulders
and turns her around to face him.
“No! No!” She cries. He
grabs her roughly by the arms and holds her firmly.
“Am I a thing worth saving, huh? Am I a righteous man?
The world wants me gone!”
“What about me? I love you so much... And I tried to make
you go away... I killed you and it didn’t help.” She shoves him off of her and gets up. “And I hate it! I
hate that it’s SO hard... and that you
can hurt me SO much. I know everything that you did, because you did it to me.
Oh, God! I wish that I wished you dead. I don’t. I can’t.” Angel gets up now, too.
“Buffy, please. Just this once... let me be strong.”
“Strong is fighting! It’s hard, and it’s painful, and
it’s every day. It’s what we have to do. And we can do it together. But if you’re too much of a coward for that,
then burn. If I can’t convince you that you belong in this world, then I don’t
know what can. But do NOT expect me to watch. And DON’T expect me to mourn for
you, because...”
“Don’t
you see? She should have let me burn, die, so I could have gone where I
belong.”
“Angel,
you’ve been given a chance, more chances than most get in the time you’ve had so
many, because she believes in you, because I do.
“What?”
He looked at me, for the first time, he really looked at me.
“Angel,
I’ve been watching you for sometime, I’ve been watching you hurt, kill, ache,
burn, suffer, I’ve been watching it all. I couldn’t do anything, it wasn’t
within my power t…”
“Not
within your power? You are the ultimate power aren’t you? The PTB? Of course
this was in your power, what’s worth your trouble here? To save my life how
many times?”
“Angel,
I can only do what others wish, I couldn’t save your soul, I tried, but even my
powers are limited, it is hers that has saved you, it was your desire and love
that brought your humanity back, that restored everything. I can give rewards
but not if the world doesn’t want it, there are rules Angel, laws that limit
even my powers over everything, and the world wanted you back. It showed you in
the moments after… look.”
We are standing amidst an inexplicable
snow fall. Buffy and Angel both look up at it coming down, lightly at first and
gradually heavier. They are standing with the snowflakes swirling around them
in the gentle morning breeze, and the ground around them starting to become
white. Buffy walks to the edge of the
hill and looks out at the town as the roofs on the houses below also start to
become white. She turns to Angel, and they look at each other, stunned by this
apparent miracle. We follow the memories down the street aglow with Christmas lights. It is deserted except
for Buffy and Angel, who walk along hand-in-hand, still looking up at the snow
as it comes down.
“What
the world did that?”
“Angel,
you cannot understand, but yes, it was not your time.”
“Funny,
my time was about 240 years prior to that, why did the world want that?”
“Angel,
there were mistakes, in time, things got out of control, with my predecessor,
and your souls didn’t quite match up, it shouldn’t have been you there in that
ally, you weren’t to born until much later. It shouldn’t have been you. I tried
to fix it, with the curse, buying you time, and it worked. It brought you to
her, you remember?”
“Yes.”
“Who are you?”
“Let’s just say... I’m a friend.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t want a friend.”
“I didn’t say I was yours.”
PART 21 (PG - Kisses)
“Angel, you keep thinking of the bad, but what about the
good?”
“What good? The night before I was a monster? The night
we spent together, the happiest night of my life? The night that killed Ms.
Calendar, almost ended the world twice? That night?”
“Angel, there was other happiness.”
“Yeah…” he looked down, and he tried to remember. I
helped him.
We are in her kitchen where Angel takes off his jacket and his T-shirt. Buffy
looks at him from behind and sees his tattoo. She brings over the first aid kit.
“Nice tattoo. It was lucky you came along. How did you
happen to come along?”
“I live nearby. I was just out walking.”
“So, you weren’t following me? I just had this feeling
you were.” She begins to bandage him.
“Why would I do that?” he says with a smile.
“You tell me. You’re the mystery guy that appears out of
nowhere. I’m not saying I’m not happy about it tonight, but... if you are
hanging around I’d like to know why.”
“Maybe I like you.”
“Maybe...”
“I shouldn’t have said that, I shouldn’t have stayed that
night. It was wrong, a vampire and a slayer, what was I thinking? I should have
told her.”
“But you did.”
“NO, I scared her.”
“But you didn’t, did you?”
“We’ll see about that…” he was beginning to know how to
see what he wanted, how to show me.
“So! What’d you do all day?”
“Uh, I read a little.” Buffy looks over to her diary.
It’s out of place. “And just thought about a lot of things. Buffy, I...”
“My diary? You read my diary? That is NOT okay! A diary
is like a person’s most private place! I... You don’t even know what I was
writing about! ‘Hunk’ can mean a lot of things, bad things. And, and when it
says that your eyes are ‘penetrating’, I meant to write ‘bulgy’.”
“Buffy...”
“And ‘'A’ doesn’t stand for ‘Angel’ for that matter, it
stands for... ‘Achmed’, a charming foreign exchange student, so that whole
fantasy part has nothing to even do with you at all...”
“Your mother moved you diary when she came in to
straighten up. I watched from the closet. I didn’t read it, I swear.” She
just looks at him.
“Oh! She looks down, and realizing what she just said,
says, “Oh.”
“I did a lot of thinking today. I really can’t be around
you. Because when I am...”
“Hey, no big. Water... over the bridge, under the
bridge...”
“When I am all I can ever think about is how badly I want
to kiss you.”
“...over the dam... Kiss me?”
“I’m older than you, and this can’t ever... I better go.”
“H-how much older?”
“I should...” Buffy approaches him.
“...go... You said...” They kiss. They kiss again. They
kiss passionately. She puts her arm around him. The kiss goes on for several
moments. Angel suddenly pulls back and looks away.
“What? What is it? What’s wrong?” He turns to face her
and growls. She sees he has his game face on and screams. He takes a last look
at her and jumps out of the window. He slides down the roof and off onto the
ground.
“SEE? I scared her. She should have killed me.”
“She tried, but she didn’t, she saw who you are, why
don’t you choose to forget that?”
“I haven’t.”
“Show me.”
We move to the Bronze. Angel is in his game face and
Buffy has her crossbow trained on him. Angel morphs back into his human form.
“C’mon! Don’t go soft on me now!” Buffy launches
the bolt. It hits the wall next to him.
“Little wide.”
“Why? Why didn’t you just attack me when you had the
chance? Was it a joke? To make me feel for you and then... I killed a lot of
vampires. I’ve never hated one before.”
“Feels good, doesn’t it? Feels simple.”
“I invited you into my home and then you attacked my family!”
“Why not? I killed mine. I killed their friends... and
their friend’s children... For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone
I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.”
“What changed?”
“Fed on a girl about your age... beautiful... dumb as a
post... but a favorite among her clan.”
“Clan?”
“Romani. Gypsies. The elders conjured the perfect
punishment for me. They restored my soul.”
“What, they were all out of boils and blinding torment?”
“When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but
it doesn’t get your soul. That’s gone! No conscience, no remorse... It’s an
easy way to live. You have no idea what it’s like to have done the things I’ve
done... and to care. I haven’t fed on a living human being since that day.”
“So you started with my mom?”
“I didn’t bite her.”
“Then why didn’t you say something?”
“But I wanted to. I can walk like a man, but I’m not one.
I wanted to kill you tonight.”
She puts down her cross bow and walks over to him, “Go
ahead.” He stares at her. “Not as easy as it looks, is it?”
“See?”
“See what? That one time, she didn’t kill me?”
“There were other times, when she couldn’t because she
knows in her heart, you belong to her.”
“You know what
the worst part was, huh? Pretending that I loved you. If I’d known how easily
you’d give it up, I wouldn’t have even bothered.”
“That doesn’t work anymore. You’re not Angel.”
“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? It doesn’t
matter. The important thing is you made me the man I am today!” Buffy kicks him
in the face. He blocks her next swing and punches her in the face and in the
gut. He grabs her and swings her around to throw her, but her footing is good
and she regains her balance. He kicks her in the face and this time she falls
to the floor. Angelus grabs Buffy as she tries to get up and heaves her over
onto her back again. She rolls around to her feet and comes at him. She swings,
but he blocks and hits her instead. He follows up with a backhand punch and she
hits the floor again.
“Not quittin’ on me already, are ya? Come on, Buffy. You
know you want it, huh?”
She leaps up and kicks him in the face. He arches
backward and then snaps forward. Buffy knees him in the chin and then delivers
a series of punches to his gut. She ends with a punch to his face. He isn’t
fazed, and lunges at her. She grabs his arm and diverts him into a display
case. He crashes through the glass, but immediately straightens back up,
breaking the top pane and the frame of the case as well. She kicks him in the
face and again in the chest, and he staggers backward into a potted tree. She
pulls out a stake and stands ready to finish the job. Angelus straightens up
and faces her. Buffy doesn’t move, but instead lowers the stake and just stares
at him.”
“You can’t do it. You can’t kill me.” Her anger
takes over and she kicks him extremely hard in the groins and he moans in
extreme pain. He collapses to his knees. Buffy turns her back on him and walks
away.
“Give me time.”
“She should have.”
“You believe that?”
“Yes.”
“She did. Didn’t she? And it killed her more than you.
There was a time when you were already dead to her, but then she had to do the
unspeakable.”
PART 22 (PG – Unspeakable Things)
We’re in the mansion yet again, at a different time. Buffy
holds up her sword and faces off with Angelus. He holds his own ready to fight
her also. “You almost made it, Buff.”
“It’s not over yet.”
“My boy Acathla here is about to wake up. You’re going to
Hell.”
“Save me a seat.” She thrusts at him with her sword, but
he parries and swings around with a thrust of his own, which she also parries.
They clash blades several times, and Buffy ducks a wide arcing swing from him.
They face off again and trade one thrust and parry after another. Angelus tries
another arcing swing from above, but she easily ducks and sidesteps out of the
way. They face off again in front of Acathla and trade a few more blows.
Angelus tries a swing from above a third time, and again Buffy ducks it and
escapes to the side. She jumps up on a low table and swings at him again. He
parries, and swings at her legs. She jumps up and over his blade and lands on
the floor. He tries for her legs again, but she blocks his attempt with her
blade. Again they trade several swings, and Angelus tries a wide swing again,
and this time cuts her superficially on the arm. He tries to take advantage of
her distraction and comes at her with his sword held high, intending to swing
from above, but she drops to the floor and rolls out of the way, so he only
manages to smash a bowl on a table behind her. Buffy kicks his legs out from
under him and scrambles back up. He turns to face her still on his knees and
swings three times in rapid succession, all of which she parries. He swings a
fourth time, and this time Buffy knocks his sword into the table with her parry
and pins it there. He backhand punches her in the face, and she spins away. He
pulls the sword from the table and swings it hard at her. She blocks it with
hers, and kicks him in the gut, making him double over. She jumps over him into
the clear, and raises her sword to continue the fight. He thrusts, and she
parries. Then he kicks her in her sword arm, and she stumbles back a step.
“What is
the sense in all this?” He looked at me, with anger in his eyes. He had to see
it, I had to make him see, we were running out of time, he was running out of
time.
“I don’t
know, you are in control of this Angel, your memories, your feelings, you are
in control, you must make sense out of what your eyes need to see.”
Angelus has dropped his sword and holds his cut. Buffy
does a high kick to his face, and he falls backward into Acathla and lands on
his knees before her. Buffy raises her sword to dispatch Angelus, but stays
herself when he suddenly gasps loudly and groans in pain. She sees his eyes
glow bright red for an instant and go back dark. He looks up at her, but
quickly collapses to the floor, crying. Buffy stares down at him, but still
holds her sword raised behind her. Angel raises himself back up, his eyes heavy
with tears, and looks into her eyes.
“Buffy? What’s going on?” She just looks at him, confused
but not yet ready to lower the sword. He looks around a bit and gets to his
feet. “Where are we? I-I don't remember.”
Finally Buffy realizes that the curse has worked, and she
slowly lowers her sword. “Angel?”
You’re hurt.” She looks down at her wound and feels his
gentle touch on her arm. She ignores her cut, looks back up at him and steps
closer. He embraces her tightly.
“Oh, Buffy... God.” She still isn’t completely sure that
it’s true, but accepts the hug. “I... I feel like I haven't seen you in
months.” Finally she accepts it, closes her eyes and breathes out a deep sigh.
“Oh, my God, everything’s so muddled. I...” He holds her even more closely.
“Oh, Buffy...” he says as he kisses her shoulder. She
cries into his shoulder and hugs him back. Behind him Acathla lets out a low
rumble. Buffy opens her eyes and stares in shock as Acathla’s face contorts.
His brows angle down, his eyes glow red, his mouth opens grotesquely and the
swirling vortex to Hell opens, small at first, but growing steadily in size and
emanating a deep, red glow. Buffy lets go of Angel and looks up into his face.
“What’s happening?”
“Shh. Don’t worry about it.” She brushes her fingers over his lips and across his
cheek. She lays her hand on his cheek and kisses him softly. He returns the
kiss, and it becomes more passionate. Behind them the vortex has grown to about
five feet across and continues to get larger. Buffy breaks off the kiss and
looks deeply into Angel’s eyes.
“I love you.” She whispers to him.
“I love you.” She touches his lips with her fingers
again.
“Close your eyes.” She nods reassuringly, and he closes
his eyes. She tries hard not to start crying, and kisses him again gently. She
steps back, draws back her sword and trusts it into his chest. His eyes whip
open in surprise and pain, and a bright light emanates from the sword. She
steps away from him. He reaches out to her and looks down at the sword thrust
completely through him. He looks at her imploringly, completely bewildered by
this turn of events. She can only stare at the sword protruding from his chest,
and slowly steps further back.
“Buffy...”
Behind him the power of the sword begins to swirl into
the vortex. Buffy steps further back, still looking only at the sword in his
chest and not into his face. The vortex has enlarged to about twelve feet
across, and the two energies begin to interact. Angel still holds out his hand
to Buffy. When the vortex finally meets him it suddenly closes into Acathla’s
mouth without so much as a spark, taking him with it. Buffy stares at the stone
demon for a long moment before breaking into sobs and tears.
PART 23 (PG - Shattered)
“Angel, she broke with those moments. She broke inside, I
felt it, it hurt me.”
“I know.” He took a deep breath, “That’s not the only
time…”
“What’s with the dire?”
“Its uh, it’s nothing.”
“No, you have ‘something’ face.”
“I think we need to talk, but not now and not here.”
“No. No, if you have something to say, then say it.” He
was quiet. “Angel, drop the cryptic. You’re scaring me.”
“I’ve been thinking... about our future. And the more I
do, the more I feel like us, you and me being together, is unfair to you.”
“Is this about what the Mayor said? Because he was just
trying to shake us up.”
“He was right.”
“No. No, he wasn’t. He’s the bad guy.”
“You deserve more. You deserve something outside of
demons and darkness. You should be with someone who can take you into the
light. Someone who can make love to you.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“You will. And children.”
“Children? Can you say jumping the gun? I kill my
goldfish.”
“Today. But you have no idea how fast it goes, Buffy.
Before you know it, you’ll want it all, a normal life.”
“I’ll never have a normal life.”
“Right, you’ll always be a Slayer. But that’s all the
more reason why you should have a real relationship instead of this, this freak
show.” She is stunned. “I didn’t mean that.”
“I’m gonna go.”
“I’m sorry. Buffy, you know how much I love you. It kills
me to say this.”
“Then don’t. Who are you to tell me what’s right for me?
You think I haven’t thought about this?”
“Have you, rationally?”
“No. No, of course not. I’m just some swoony little
schoolgirl, right?”
“I’m trying to do what’s right here, okay? I’m trying to
think with my head instead of my heart.”
“Heart? You have a heart? It isn’t even beating!”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what? Don’t love you? I’m sorry. You know what? I
didn’t know that I got a choice in that. I’m never gonna change. I can’t
change. I want my life to be with you.”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t want to be with me? I can’t believe you’re
breaking up with me.”
“It doesn’t mean that I don’t ...”
“How am I supposed to stay away from you?”
“I’m leaving. After the Ascension, after it’s finished
with the Mayor and Faith. If we survive, I’ll go.” She looks at him.