I�d chosen this place for my last stand, following the dark northward to this frozen rock at the edge of all that was. I�d researched the timing, found the perfect stretch of days when the sun wouldn�t rise here. I could wrap endless night around me, draw strength from the dark. Hide away up here in the cold and lick my wounds. Try to forget for a while.
But of course there was an end to the darkness, because this world belongs to the sun, as all of my kind know too well. I could smell it as I stood there, so faint but growing ever stronger- sunlight, hunting me down alongside my enemies. I had four hours left.
Their boat landed an hour ago, on the other side of the island. I watched it approach to within a hundred yards of the shore before I slipped away. It was state-of-the-art, of course; she wouldn�t have anything else, my brave girl. My good soldier.
She was a general by then, not the solitary warrior I helped to train so very long ago in a town that no longer existed. She had an army, one that she ordered spun from her own source of power. She trained them well, by all accounts- I had heard about how they could fight, what they could do. I�d always slipped out of town just ahead of them. Wherever I ran, they�d show up in good time, though. There was no escaping them, not anywhere the sun shone. So I came up to this place, to the edge of the world- but in four hours, even less, the sun would find this place, too.
I stared out into the waves, considered throwing myself into them to thwart the hunters. I was no stranger to the sea. But I remained on the stony beach. There was no point in any more running. There was nowhere left to go.
I stood facing the wind that came in from the sea, and yet I could still smell her approach from behind me. I knew her that well, was that attuned to her. I didn�t turn- what would be the point? Seeing my face wasn�t going to change her mind.
She said my name, and I closed my eyes, remembering when I�d heard it shouted in anger or whispered in love. Now it was cold, clipped, all business. She was a general, after all.
�Why did you do it?� I asked her- no, not the general who stood there, but the girl I used to know. �I remember when you didn�t kill humans.�
�Exceptions must be made for those who hinder the mission. They were abetting your escape.� Those weren�t my girl�s words. Only the general stood on that beach.
�They were my friends.� I wondered again exactly how they did it, how the Slayers had slain Wesley and Fred and Gunn.
�They chose that friendship over their own kind.� She paused. �It was...a poor choice.�
�What did Spike say when you killed him?� It was a cheap shot, but I didn�t care. I had felt it when the blood of my blood flew to dust, felt it like fire racing through my heart when he fell, the one whose love for her had blazed even brighter than my own.
�That�s personal.� I laughed at that, and finally turned around.
�Personal.� I rolled the word out slowly, like I enjoyed its flavor. �Was what you did to Willow personal? Or to Faith? I know what you did to Giles was...�
�They lost faith in the mission,� she said steadily. �I couldn�t afford to, so I couldn�t afford to continue our association.�
�Xander stayed by your side to the bitter end, though. Good loyal Xander, hope you left a puppy treat on his grave.� The last thing I�d seen as I raced out of LA with the hunters on my heels- Xander going down under Wesley�s knife. I wondered if she had shed a tear for him, at least. My reports said that she hadn�t when she named Giles and Faith as the prey in her Slayer training hunts, or when she had Willow locked away in a magical coma. She didn�t flinch at the mention of Xander�s name, anyway. Her eyes were cool and steady stone as I searched them for signs of the girl the mission had eaten alive.
I looked over her shoulder inland, where four young women waited on a wind-blasted hilltop. Their hair was wild and tangled; their clothes tight and ragged leather. I�d heard about them from fellow refugees in my travels. They called them Mad Dog Slayers- too young when Willow�s call went out, they cracked under the weight until they were barely human anymore. Buffy�s army had pieced them together just enough to fight. To hunt and kill.
�I�m the last?� I asked her, watching three of them slowly stalk and circle the fourth, who bared her teeth and snarled.
�Yes.� She allowed herself pride at that, and I suppose it was fitting for a job well done, even if the meaning of that one word spun my head around. The last vampire in the world, anywhere...
�Your soldiers are...thorough,� I said.
�That�s why we�re here to finish it, Angel. If we let you live, you could create more, put us right back where we started.� She took a step closer. �We have to wipe the slate clean. For all the children born every day, for humanity. For Dawn. We have to close the book on all of you.�
I watched one of the Mad Dogs slash at another with long, ragged fingernails. � �We.� Is there no you anymore, Buffy?�
�There was never really a me. There was the calling, the mission. That�s all.�
�The calling was in love with me?� The targeted girl punched one of her attackers in the throat; she fell heavily and was back up in a heartbeat.
�I�ve let go of the past, Angel. Bringing it up isn�t going to change anything. I live in the now.�
I nodded; it was a half-hearted feint at best, anyway. I was out of last-minute saves. �What will you do with them, now?� I asked her, indicating the fighting Slayers. �All they know how to do is hunt and kill. What�s their next target?�
A shadow of a frown crossed her face was she watched them. �I haven�t decided yet.� One of the Mad Dogs yelped in pain.
�You could rent them out to governments suppressing revolutions,� I suggested with a bitter grin. �Or just have them put down.�
She glared at me. I saw her left hand flex and move toward her stake; she always had telegraphed that. �We don�t kill humans.�
�Unless they interfere with the mission,� I reminded her. �And your mission is coming to an end.� The approaching sunrise began to make my skin itch. I had no idea how long we�d stood there on the beach. �And if you are the mission, as you say...will you vanish in a puff of ash when I do?�
�Let�s find out,� she growled, pulling out the stake. I laughed at her.
�Why did you come here yourself, Buffy? Why didn�t you just send your dogs? Did you want the satisfaction personally?�
She shrugged. �Yes.�
�None of it means a thing.� I meant the hours I�d trained with her, the kisses, the times we�d saved each others� lives, the trip from Hell, the blood, the tears. Her jaw was set, but I thought I saw the ghost of a young girl crying in her eyes.
�I�m going to finish my job.�
�Then let�s finish it.�
She launched herself at me, and we danced.
Oh, how we danced...moves I�d taught her, mastered and refined. Techniques I�d learned from Gunn, blocks she took from Faith, a kick we�d both copied from Spike. On and on on that rocky beach, while the mad Slayers watched from a distance. They didn�t move to interfere; the general must have claimed this kill for her own.
It went on for hours. We�d both learned while we were apart, both practiced and studied and trained. She�d aged, I hadn�t; but I hadn�t been fighting for my life every single day of a very long war. It was a wash. Neither of us could gain the upper hand.
The tingling in my skin was so bad I could hardly stand it, and the sour-sweet smell in my nostrils was choking me- a sensation remembered from when I�d had to breathe. Sunrise was only moments away now.
Her eyes were wild with frustration, her face contorted into a crazed scowl. The general�s cool detachment was shattered. �Just give up and die,� she half-snarled, half-sobbed. �Just let me end it.�
I looked at her, my body automatically blocking and parrying, and suddenly I saw. I wanted to laugh. Still my girl, my Slayer, in the depths of that buried and hardened heart. The general hadn�t quite killed her off yet; it would take a special blow to stop that heart.
The timing was so delicate; I only had a few minutes left. I threw an extra burst into a kick that knocked her flat for a split second, hurdled her body, and ran down the beach.
I heard her footsteps pounding behind me, but I didn�t look back. The prize was in sight- a little rise at the end of the shoreline, a rocky point jutting out into the waves.
I used every bit of my demon�s strength to leap to the top, then turned to look down at her. She glared up at me, quivering with frustration. �Come down and fight,� she ordered. �Finish it.�
�In another minute there�ll be no need.� I swept one hand out theatrically, pointing to the trembling orange band of the horizon where the sun began to break through.
She stared at it, and I watched the slow tide of dismay rise in her face as she realized what was about to happen.
�Sunrise,� I said, staring down at the love of my many lifetimes.
�No.� But her voice was empty; she saw her defeat. Her chance to kill the last remains of the girl she used to be, to cut the chain-links of the past with her own two hands- stolen by a turning of the globe.
�No!� she shrieked in frustration, flinging her stake to the ground. �No, no, no...�
I started to laugh, as the heat against my skin grew unbearable and smoke began to rise around me. Her beautiful face, twisted with tears of rage, was the last thing I saw as the flames leapt up and sun rose over the edge of the world on the first day.
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