This is a one shot thing. I have been very depressed this week with the finale. The death of one of my favorite characters of all time nearly killed me and still can make me sob like a baby when I think about it for too long. This is mostly for me to get a sense of closure and a comfort for Wesley's demise. Writing something happy lessens the pain.
Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss Whedon and 20th Century Fox. No longer the WB, since they suck and I can curse at them all I want now!
Wesley closed his eyes for the last time. He felt nothing at first, but then was thrown upward at great speed. There was a loud noise and nothing but white light in all directions. 'Guess the whole 'go towards the light' thing is true,' he thought. Suddenly, he stopped and landed on something hard. Ground. Standing up, he could hear voices all around him, which a lot of were female. The dizziness came and he felt like he was about to vomit, only he remembered that he didn't have a body anymore.
"Wesley! You made it!" a voice called to him. Knowing that voice anywhere, he turned around and came face to face with-
"Cordelia? What-?" he asked, but stopped as he finally saw where he was. He was standing in the middle of the old Sunnydale High library. Everything was how he remembered it. There was the usual table with the many chairs around. Books were found everywhere and there were several people that he didn't recognize sitting in the few comfy chairs on the second level all talking. Cordelia, looking the same as the last time he saw her, was standing a few feet from him and had a smile planted on her bright face, but it was almost sad.
"No hug? That how greet a friend?" she asked him. Wesley smiled at Cordy and went to hug her. "How are you feeling? The first dew minutes after you get here can be kinda nauseating, but it gets better." Wesley looked around the library, which he didn't know how he was in it, and saw lots of women, only a couple of men, all laughing and having a good time.
"Cordelia, where are we?" he asked her finally. Cordelia smiled.
"Well, you should know. You've been in here before," she reminded him. Wesley shook his head.
"Not the library Cordy. What place is this?" he asked. Cordelia took his hand and led him to a couple of chairs and motioned for him to sit down.
"Well where do you think we are?" she asked him. Wesley looked around again.
"Hell? I mean, we're in the library. That's got to be a clue." Cordelia laughed.
"We're not in Hell. This is Heaven. Well, not Heaven per say, but one of the many heavenly dimensions. We all hang out here because we're all in some way tied together," Cordelia said.
"Who's 'we'?" he asked. Cordelia pointed to everyone around her. Wesley looked around at the faces this time, struggling to recognize them. His eyes widened when he recognized one of the women as Anya, the newly human girl he remembered who went to high school with the Scoobies. One of the two men was standing talking to Anya and Wesley couldn't remember his name, but he'd seen a picture of him in Angel's penthouse. "Who is that man?" Cordelia looked over to who he was asking about and smiled.
"Oh, that's Doyle," she replied. Hearing his name, Doyle excused himself from Anya and walked down to where Cordelia and Wesley were sitting.
"You called Princess?" he asked her, his Irish accent as clear as ever. Cordelia stood up next to Doyle.
"Doyle, look who's joined us," she told him. Doyle looked over at Wesley and smiled.
"Well, I didn't think you'd be the next one here, not after-" But Doyle didn't get to finish because Cordelia cut him off with a strong, steady glare.
"After who?" Wesley asked. Cordelia ignored him and changed the subject.
"Let me introduce you to everyone else. We have Jenny Calendar over there. She used to be my computers teacher in high school until Angelus murdered her." Wesley looked over to see a beautiful young women, possibly in her late 20's, sitting next to an equally beautiful brunette woman, who looked even younger. "That's Tara sitting next to her. She was Willow's girlfriend until some bastard who shot Buffy a couple of years ago shot her as well. Her death was the trigger to Willow going all vein-y a while back."
"Yes, Willow showed me a picture of her on her last visit last year," Wesley said. Cordelia nodded and pointed to a group of teenage girls sitting on or standing next to the library counter all talking a way. There were at least ten of them.
"Those are the potentials. Slayers. They all died last year. Some before the big Sunnydale battle, a couple during. They're cool but they sometimes get on your nerves. I mean, there's only so long you can handle listening to gossip before going crazy." Cordy said. Wesley thought that was ironic. Cordelia used to be just as chatter-y as those girls were back when she was a student in high school.
"It's starting! The big fight is starting!" the only other guy besides him and Doyle told them. Everyone gathered around a TV that was near a book shelf.
"Ok, thanks Jonathan. We'll be right there," Cordelia told Jonathan.
"Big fight?" Wesley asked. Cordelia nodded and led him up the stairs and to where everyone was gathered around. Wesley looked into the TV and gasped. There were Angel, an injured Gunn, Spike, and Illyria all standing in an alley, awaiting an army of demons rushing toward them. "Dear lord."
"Huh?" Cordelia asked, turning her gaze from the screen. "What was that? Sorry, I wasn't listening."
"They're going to all die. They couldn't possibly defeat that many demons," Wesley said. Cordelia nodded.
"Nope, they really can't. But they're still willing to try. That's all that matters. You know Angel. He's a fighter, no matter what. And now with the shanshu thing not an option for him anymore, he's determined to fight until he dies," Cordelia told him.
"Wait, what do you mean Angel can't become human now?" Wesley asked loudly. Several people shushed him. Cordelia looked down.
"Angel signed his name on the scroll earlier today. The Circle didn't trust him entirely, so they made him sign his name in blood. Once he signed, the prophecy can't come true for him," she told him. Wesley looked saddened.
"You mean that now after everything that he's worked for, he won't be able to be human?" Wesley asked her. Cordelia nodded. She went back to watching the fight while Wesley digested the new information.
"Wesley, look." Wesley looked at the screen to see that Angel and the rest of his gang weren't the only ones fighting anymore. A whole army of young girls were along Angel, fighting against the swarm of demons.
"Are those...?" Wesley asked.
"Potentials. Hey girls!" Cordelia called to the group of potentials. "Look at this." Wesley watched as he saw several others alongside Angel and the gang. Buffy, Faith, Willow, Xander, and Giles were all fighting as well. Wesley couldn't believe his eyes.
"Look at Kennedy go!" a potential cried aloud, pointing to the screen. "She's gotten stronger, hasn't she?" Several of the girls agreed.
"Doyle, why don't you go get her," Cordelia called to Doyle, who nodded and walked out the back door and through the stacks. Wesley wondered who Doyle was going to get when he heard several gasps. Wesley turned to see Gunn being slashed in the chest. Cordelia put her hand over her mouth and gasped. Wesley watched as his friend sank to his knees and collapsed. Angel cried out Gunn's name and took out the nasty looking demon that killed him. Hearing a cough from the entrance of the library, Wesley and Cordelia turned to see Gunn walk in through the swinging doors. He looked bewildered and nervous at the same time. When he saw Wesley and Cordelia, he looked like he was going to be sick.
"Gunn. You fought really hard," Cordelia told him, walking down to him and leading him to where Wesley was standing. Gunn saw Wesley and sighed.
"I hope you didn't feel as much pain as I did," Gunn told him. Wesley suddenly remembered the pain. White hot pain burned through his body the last few moments of his life. He remembered that it was even worse than having his throat slashed. Then he remembered the last thing he saw. Fred. No, it was Illyria, lying to him in the form of Fred. When he was lying there in the pool of his own blood, he made himself believe it was Fred. It was too painful to think otherwise.
"Wesley? Are you listening to me?" Cordelia snapped Wesley out of his thought, and he was grateful for it. He saw that Gunn was now sitting on a chair, looking at the floor. He knew exactly what Gunn was thinking. He was thinking about what was going to happen to him now. Would he stay here forever? How was he even here in the first place. He betrayed Angel by taking his son two years earlier. He found it hard to believe he was destined to spend eternity in this heavenly dimension.
"What were you saying?" he asked Cordelia, who was tapping her foot on the tiled floor.
"I was asking you what was wrong? You look depressed. You're in Heaven! Be happy!" she exclaimed.
"I was just thinking," Wesley replied. Cordelia sat on the table and sighed.
"About Fred?" she asked. Wesley nodded.
"I was hoping to see her here. That what Sparrow and Knox said was a lie." Cordelia took his hand in hers and squeezed it.
"You love her don't you?" she asked. Wesley looked at her and nodded.
"But it doesn't matter now. Nothing does." He lowered his head and closed his eyes.
"Wesley?" Lifting his head up, he froze. No, this was a terrible trick. He really was in Hell and he was to be tortured for the rest of eternity with her voice in his head. He looked at Cordelia, who was still looking at him, a soft smile on her face.
"Wesley, turn around," she told him. Wesley looked to his side at Gunn, who was gazing in the direction of the main entrance, mouth slightly open. Standing up and turning to look at what caught Gunn's eye, Wesley almost collapsed. There, standing next to Doyle, was Fred. Like a played out cliché, she was dressed in white, her brown hair in a ponytail. Her expression was gleeful, like she was waiting for him and now he finally came.
"Fred?" Gunn was now standing, his face filled with relief and joy. "Oh my God, is that you Fred?" Wesley watched as Fred smiled shyly and fiddled with her bracelet. At once, Gunn walked over and pulled Fred into a tight embrace. They could hear him crying a bit, not looking to letting her go.
"Charles, It's okay," Fred assured him, rubbing his shoulders.
"No it's not. It's my fault you died. My fault," he told her. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."
"It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known I would die. It's not your fault Charles," Fred soothed. Wesley watched this all happen and he could hear Cordelia sniffling back some tears next to him. If it weren't for the shock that overwhelmed him, he would have been reduced to tears as well. Gunn let go of Fred and wiped his eyes.
"None of you saw that, okay?" he told them. Fred smiled and then looked at Wesley.
"I'm sorry that you had to suffer with me being gone. If I would have told you that what Knox and Dr. Sparrow said was not true, I would have. But you're here now and that's all that matters, right?" Fred said to him. Wesley was glued to the ground. He wanted to move toward her and wrap her in his embrace but he couldn't.
"Fred, I..." he started. Fred walked to him and gently kissed him.
"Let it go Wesley. You don't have to worry about anything anymore. We're together now and nothing can break that apart here. No more death or deceit or anything else that made you suffer in life," she told him. Wesley, after what seemed like an eternity, let go of every bad feeling he had in him. His feelings when he was about to take Connor away from Angel. The wrongness he felt with his affair with Lilah Morgan. The pain he felt when he thought he killed his own father. And the rage and sorrow her felt when Fred died in his arms.
"You're right. Everything will be better," he agreed. Fred smiled and leaned in for another kiss, in which Wesley was happy to return.
"See Princess, I told you everything would turn out fine," Doyle said to Cordelia, who was wiping tears away from her eyes.
"I never said they wouldn't," she replied. Gunn walked over to the TV and watched the battle rage on. Angel and Spike were taking out one demon after another, each helping out Faith and Buffy, who were holding their own just as good as the two vampires were. Willow was using magick to set many demons ablaze and Tara smiled as she watched her former lover. The thousands of potentials fought hard and did more damage than either Buffy or Faith. Anya cheered Xander on, who was taking on a slime demon without trouble. Darla and Joyce both watched as Connor and Dawn, oblivious to each other, fought side by side. Illyria had no problem with the demons that tried to take her down. They resulted in a pile of mess when she was done with them.
"Well, looks like we might actually win this fight," Gunn commented. Wesley and Fred joined him near the TV and observed the fighting.
"The good fight, yeah?" Doyle said. Cordelia put an arm over his shoulder and smiled.
"Yeah," she agreed. "The good fight."
THE END!
There, how was that? I know, kinda sappy and cheesy, but it eases my pain.