Title: Shanshu
Author: Wiggins241
Email: lilerika721@aol.com
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. They belong to Joss Whedon and those guys. If I owned them Buffy and Angel would be riding into the sunset because Angel got his reward of Shanshu.
Spoilers: Season 7 of BTVS, Season 4 and 5 of Angel
Summary: What if Angel helped Buffy and the others during their battle with the First Evil?
Feedback: Pretty pretty please!
A.N. My second story J
A.N 2. Major character death in this part, but don't worry, things will get better.
Prologue
A bright light filled the underground cavern and dusted the ubervamps it touched.
"BUFFY!" she heard Spike shout as the light shot out of him from the amulet.
"SPIKE!"
The ground shakes and she hears the barest whisper of something, but then paid it little mind as she spotted Spike in the glowing light and then all she could do was stare at him.
****************
Angel looked up from the settling dust of an ubervamp he staked when he heard Spike's shout and his eyes widened when he saw the blonde haired vampire with light shooting out of his chest.
He looked around seeing the many ubervamps being dusted by the light and the pillars falling, when suddenly the light touched him and he could feel the burning sensation that he associated with the sun.
He looked down at his hands and then his body to see them smoking, then turning to dust.
As he slowly crumbled, he tried to shout Buffy's name, but it came out as a whisper. His last thoughts were that she would be safe. That his friends were ok. And that his son would be happy.
Then, unnoticed by anyone, the dark haired vampire exploded into ash that mingled with dirt and the dust and ash of others.
And a silver claddaugh ring feel to the ground with a soft 'ping' before being covered by the ashes of its owner.
*********************
Faith's shout of evacuating everyone out of the now crumbling cavern breaks Buffy out of her reverie and she runs to Spike's side.
When she reaches his side, he turns to her with a look of awe, "I can feel it, Buffy."
"What?" traces of confusion lace her voice.
"My soul. It's really there," he tells her with a dazed look, then as an afterthought, "Kind of stings."
Buffy realizes that they are the only two left still in the cavern. And the beam of light is still shooting out of Spike, destroying everything in its path. She looks into his face.
"Go on, then."
"No. No, you've done enough. You could still—
"No, you've beat them back. It's for me to do the cleanup."
She could vaguely hear Faith call her, but her focus was on Spike and trying to get him to leave.
"Gotta move, lamb. I think it's fair to say school's out for bloody summer.," he said with a grin.
"Spike!" Buffy looked worriedly at him, she couldn't leave him here.
"I mean it! I gotta do this," he told her determinedly and held up a hand to stop her words.
Buffy looks at his hand, then to his face, then back to the outstretched hand. Slowly moving her fingers through his until they laced together and paid no heed to the fire that resulted.
She looked into his blue eyes, "I love you."
Spike looked in her eyes and saw the truth there. Yet, what he saw it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would.
"No, you don't. But thanks for saying it," he says gratefully with a small smile.
She looks into his eyes, only to see acceptance and let's go of his hand.
"Now go!"
She runs up the stairs hoping to leave before the building goes down.
Spike looked at the destruction around and laughingly says, "I wanna see how it ends," as he crumbs to dust beneath the falling pillars and ashes.
Buffy ran as fast as she could after the bus, jumping from building to building, until jumping on the top of the bus., never looking back to see the town sink fall into a crater behind her. The buildings and homes crumbling into ash and dust that mixed with the remains of the only two vampires with souls.
*********************
The bus screeched to a stop just outside of city limits. One by one, the Scooby gang cleared off the bus to greet Buffy, who was still holding the scythe, and to see the destruction that was left. Dawn gave Buffy a big hug when she reached her.
"I don't understand. Who did this?" he asked as he looked at the huge crater that was the town of Sunnydale.
With a small smile, Buffy simply answered, "Spike."
They watched as the small green 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign slowly teetered on the edge of the hole before tumbling in.
Xander, Willow and Faith, holding various weapons that they didn't put down yet, came to join the others which were some feet away from the edge of the pit.
They briefly chatted about the missing town and the now awakening slayers everywhere.
"That was a great battle," Faith said smiling, the energy from the fight still in her system.
"Yeah. Great." Xander replied, slightly mourning for Anya, but proud of the way she saved someone. The others gave small noises of agreement.
" Come on. It was one hell of a fight. This sword Angel let me borrow did wicked damage." Faith looked at the still shining sword that the dark-haired vampire had let her use.
As Faith looked around for him, but then remembered the sun. She look toward the others confused, "Where did Angel go? Did he run underground?"
The all looked at each other then to where Sunnydale use to reside.
In that moment, they didn't know who uttered what, but it melded into one phrase.
Oh, God.
********************
In a luxurious apartment in Los Angeles, a dark-haired man woke with a gasp in his bed from his nap. The blinds were partially open, letting the rising sun's rays to fall on the bed and onto the man's bare chest.
As he was sitting up and shaking his head, trying to remember the dream, the small blonde in bed next to him stirred.
"Liam, what's wrong?" she groggily asked. Her eyes still closed as she snuggled deeper into the sheets and closer to him.
"Nothing. Just a dream. Go back to sleep." He whispered, then gave her a kiss on her forehead.
She gave a small smile and pulled him back down onto the bed, to snuggle into his side.
Liam O'Conner then fell into a dreamless sleep, and snuggled into his side was his girlfriend, Shelby.