A Hero's Last Words

A Hero's Last Words

The energy vortex swirled and flashed in the early morning night. It was the most amazing, yet devastating sight that the Slayer and her friends had ever seen, and they had seen a lot.

Buffy and her little sister Dawn stood atop the platform that Glory had built for this event, for her trip home. Now, Buffy had beaten Glory and was somehow sure that she would not be coming back, despite knowing that the insane hell god would obviously want revenge for her ruined chance. Despite all this, Buffy was only thinking of one thing at the moment, and that was her sister.

"What are you doing?!" Buffy yelled as she grabbed her sister, just as the fifteen year old was about to run past her and jump into the swirling vortex of destructive hell energies barely twenty feet below them.

"I have to jump…the energy." Dawn whimpered as Buffy held onto her, keeping her from stopping what she started.

"It'll kill you!" Buffy exclaimed, terrified at what Dawn was about to do.

"I know," Dawn whispered as she looked at her sister, her only family left in the world. "Buffy, I know about the ritual. I have to stop it!"

"No!" Buffy's voice shook as she held onto her only reason left for living, her sister. Her promise to her mother.

"I have to! Look at what's happening!" Dawn shouted as at that exact moment, a surge of energy from the churning vortex below shot into the sky beside them, and a flying dragon like demon appeared and flew around the tower, only to disappear out of sight mere moments later.

"Buffy, you have to let me go! The blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing, it'll never stop!" Dawn pleaded with her sister. Buffy could only shake her head.

"You know you have to let me. It has to have the blood." Dawn explained, looking past her sister at the swirling vortex that her blood, that she had caused. She has caused so much pain and suffering for so many people…she, she can't let it go on like this.

Buffy reflected on those words, and all the hidden meanings that it had meant to her over the past few days. The time she spoke to Dawn in the hospital, the conversation with Spike, the whole conversation with the group back at the magic shop, and finally on the message that her spirit guide had given her; "Death is your gift." "Death…" "Is your gift."

And Buffy was visibly shaken by the realization that dawned on her. A light of understanding came to her face as she turned slowly, her internal Slayer clock instinctively telling her what time it was. And as she turned, a strong orange hue took to the sky, and slowly, slowly but surely, an orb of orange red fire was forming on the horizon and slowly growing larger as it inched higher upon the sky. It was Dawn.

Buffy turned back to her sister, a strange serenity within her features all of a sudden. As soon as Dawn looked in her sister's eyes, she knew exactly what Buffy was planning on doing

"Buffy, no…" she pleaded.

"Dawnie, I have to." Buffy stated.

"NO!" Dawn begged.

"Listen to me, there isn't a lot of time. Listen." Buffy began.

"Dawn listen to me, listen." Buffy urged her sister to hear her last words. "I love you, I will always love you. This is the work that I have to do."

"Tell Giles that…tell Giles that I figured it out, that…I'm OK. Give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me."

Dawn was crying as her sister gave her, her final message, her last words. She would know them by heart until the day she died. Taking Dawn's face in her hands one final time, Buffy kissed her sister lovingly on the cheek, and said goodbye one last time, with her eyes.

Then she turned and ran to the end of the platform, leaving a crying Dawn behind her, as she ran towards the birthing one. And then, she disappeared over the edge, heading straight for the heart of that evil energy that Dawn had unleashed unwillingly. It was far too late, but Dawn cried out anyway.

"BUFFY!!!" and then she wept as she fell to her knees, seeing and feeling the rip in reality disappearing, and everything was normal again. Except that Dawn was all alone now. She had no one. Not her sister, not her mother, but…but.

Dawn steadied herself as the light of the new dawn reached her face. She stood up slowly and began to walk down the stairs of the tower. When she reached the ground, she was about to pass out from her injuries, and steadying herself against the stone wall, she saw the others gathering, around a small pile of debris. And she saw. Just like she had seen her mother. She lay there, so still, so very, very still. Fresh tears flowed from Dawn's eyes, but she steadied herself and walked over to the others.

She would be brave. She would live. For Buffy.

She knew what she had to do. And later, if asked, she knew that she would say, and do, that she would do it again in a heartbeat. After giving Dawn her message to her friends and Giles, she kissed her little sister on the cheek, letting the little Summers woman know how much she truly loved her.

Buffy turned after that, and despite knowing full well what she was doing, what it would mean, and that she was more than likely about to die, she felt so very, very calm. Yet as the energy storm raged beneath them, she also felt an anxiousness, a feeling that if she didn't do this, and do this soon, that it would be too late, even for her sacrifice. So filled with sudden adrenaline, working with Slayer muscles, she ran as fast as she could, and as she reached the edge, she jumped, spreading her arms out, her legs straight. She almost felt like she was trying to fly, but she knew on every level of her subconscious that she was falling, and about to die.

As she fell the brief distance from the platform to the evil energy vortex, she felt something new spur within her. A new sense of purpose, of desperation, of…hope. She didn't know why, or how she could feel this way, only that she did, and as she did, something within her stirred.

And then she was inside it, she felt the lightning like energy shoot through her, surround her, hold her. She felt hot and cold at the same time. Everywhere outside of her, it was like jumping into an artic wind, naked, and falling through it forever, but inside, she felt the energy and everywhere that energy touched her, she burned. Finally, after no more than a few seconds hanging in the energy vortex, something snapped inside her and she called out with her mind, with her soul, with everything and so much more that she was. She called out, almost in a childish voice, "TAKE ME HOME!!!!" But she knew that she couldn't, not yet. She couldn't go home alone.

And then she blacked out, hoping, praying that somebody, something, somewhere had heard her cry. The dying body fell the rest of the way to land on a pile of bricks and garbage. And in that moment, Buffy Summers was no more.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I stand to gain no profit from this. This is the last scene from this season's (Season 5) season finale. The way that I see it. I write this for the enjoyment of others and this scene, the words, characters and just about everything belong to Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, and Sand Dollar Entertainment and Mutant Enemy. If anybody has any discrepancies about this, please tell me immediately and I will make full apologies and immediately retract this from Fanfiction.Net. Hope you like.