Summary:
How would things have gone without Willow? (AU season 2+)
Spoilers:
This fic is Alternate Universe from Season 2 so there will definately be spoilers for season 1 and season 2. There could be spoilers for other seasons as well once the story progresses.
Rating:
T-rating(13+)
If you're allowed to see the show, you should be allowed to read this. Violence and swearing are kept to the same levels as in the show or lower.
Disclaimer:
'Disclaimer: a person who disclaims.'
Well, that would be me.
Author's notes:
For now this is going to be a one-shot. I will probably continue this after I've finished my other fic. If there is enough demand it could be a lot sooner than that. So, if you like it: Review, and you might see more of it.
Chapter 1: When she was bad
Books and papers were strewn all over the floor, chairs were broken and the wooden table, that had born the weight of countless books on demons at times when the scoobies had to research another threat to humanity, lay on its side. A hand clasped the side of that table and a battered figure pulled himself from the ground.
Buffy quickly ran to the figure. The blonde vampire slayer had just returned from an attempt to rescue Cordelia Chase, Queen of the socially sound circle at Sunnydale High. The attempt was a failure as she hadn't be able to find any trace of Cordy, only a vampire that had posed as her.
"Xander! What happened?"
"Vampires. The ones you could handle yourself." He returned with more than a little venom.
"Where are the others?" Buffy asked.
"I don't know." Then he angrily added. "I don't know what your problem is, what your issues are, but as of now, I officially don't care. If you'd worked with us for five seconds, you could've stopped this."
"We, we just have to think. Where would they have taken them?" She said, turning around to avoid those accusing eyes.
"If they hurt Willow, I'll kill you." Even with the fear in his voice, it was clear that he meant it. And despite the fact that he had none of the strength or skill to pull it off, the threat scared her more than any vampire ever had.
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Hammer held high she looked at the object of her hatred: the Bones of the Master. The vampire that had started it all: The harvest, the prophecy, her death.
Not much more than a year ago she had been looking forward to Sunnydale. Moving to this town in the middle of nowhere was supposed to take her away from all the slaying. Merrick was dead, the vampires were slain; she had fulfilled her duty. She had been looking forward to a life where her biggest worry was once again going to be: her performance in the chearleader squad, not whether or not she was going to live through another night of demon hunting. She certainly hadn't expected worrying about what clothes she was going to wear tomorrow because the ones she had wanted to wear had been thrown away because they were covered in demon goo.
With a mighty swing she pounded the Master's skull into dust and quickly continued with the rest. She poured all her anger into it. Anger at the Master, the prophecy, her death. Anger at Giles for just giving up on her. Anger at herself for her stupidity, for giving up, for failing, for taking it out on her friends. Finally, when all that was left of the Master was white powder she broke down into Angel's comforting embrace.
When they got back with the others she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight before her. Xander was clutching the bloodied body of his redheaded friend and crying. Buffy had never seen Xander cry before, not even when Jesse died. Ms.Calender, Giles and Cordelia were all watching the two best friends. Both women had tears dripping down their cheeks and Giles was polishing his glasses, his expression was unreadable.
A hollow feeling entered Buffy's chest as she started to realize what this meant. She had just begun to come to terms with the fact that she had died a few months ago, if only for a couple of minutes. And now, her best friend was dead...
No this couldn't be happening. This was some mistake. They had been able to revive Buffy, they could revive Willow. Some CPR, a blood transfusion and she would be as good as new. The Slayer stepped forward to fix this whole mess, but one look from Xander stopped her. It was a look of pure hatred.
She couldn't deal with this. Not now. Willow and Xander had been her only friends in Sunnydale. The only real friends of her own age that she had ever had. Now Willow was dead and Xander hated her. She couldn't deal with this.
She turned and bolted for the exit.
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It was the fifth cemetery the slayer had checked out tonight, but she found nothing. No vampires, No Xander, a big zippo diddly squat nada. Since her rampage yesterday after Willow's death not a single demon had dared to show itself, which was frustrating, she really felt like taking her tormented feelings out on the first poor evil soul or unsouled creature that she came across. There was never an apocalypse when you were looking for one. Why did they only come when they were inconvenient?
'Focus Buffy. Find Xander, that's what you came here to do. Not slay vampires.' She had been about to go on patrol when Giles called with the message that Xander had decided to try his hand at the slaying profession. She could understand his actions, considering she felt like pummeling a few demons herself. But then again Xander didn't have any super strength, speed or anything else super. He didn't even have any real fighting skills. It was a good thing demon activity was low tonight, she didn't want to lose the only friend she had left. Or at least the person she called a friend, but who hated her.
Suddenly her slayer-sense went ballistic and before Buffy realized it she had turned around and caught a wooden arrow out of the air before it imbedded itself in her shoulder. Seconds later something attacked her and she was thrown to the ground her attacker on top. Fortunately she managed to get her legs under the attacker and with a grunt she threw it off her. Her assailant landed a dozen feet away from her, but it didn't have a chance to recover before she straddled it, or rather him.
"Xander?" She asked, not only surprised by his appearance, but also by the fact that he had managed to sneak up on her. Even most vamps weren't able to do that.
"Hey Buff. You know, you could have just asked nicely that you wanted on top." He grinned
"Xander, what are you doing here?" Buffy asked sternly as she let him up.
"Well, what does it look like I'm doing here?" He countered as he wiped the dirt from his clothes.
She looked closely at him and saw the bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep, the grin on his face that looked completely out of place with everything else. Stakes and a cross were strapped to his belt.
"It looks like you're hunting vampires."
"Close, but no Cubans for you. Actually, I'm here to fulfill a promise I made."
"A promise?" she asked in confusion.
"You know, for all the super powers you have, a good memory isn't one of them. Let me give you a hint: 'If they hurt Willow,'"
"'I'll kill you.'" She breathed and finally everything made sense.
Xander smiled wickedly.
"Congratulations, your memory beats that of a fish. I probably should have added: 'or die trying', because killing a slayer...not as easy as you'd think."
She backed away in disbelief. "You're...You're crazy."
Xander schrugged. "Maybe, I don't much care at the moment."
Suddenly a low voice interrupted their conversation. "She isn't responsible for Willow's death."
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The two of them turned towards the new arrival: Angel. The corpse Buffy was in love with. Xander had been jealous of the vampire once upon a time, but now the sight of Angel only filled him with disgust. He was a coward, brooding about his evil past, but doing nothing to make up for it. He did nothing to help Buffy, other than giving her some oh so helpful news of danger and some information most of which didn't even make sense anyway.
"Well, if it isn't deadboy. It's funny how he only comes to the rescue when it isn't really needed."
"She isn't responsible for Willow's death." the vampire repeated.
"She wasn't responsible for Jesse's death either. And yet, the one year she lives in Sunnydale, both of my friends die. Coincidence? I doubt it."
"Killing her Won't bring either one of them back."
Xander snorted. "This isn't about bringing them back, this is about pure and simple revenge. Besides, maybe her death will trigger a half competent Slayer. It'll save dozens of lives!"
Buffy interrupted them.
"You think I wanted this? That I wanted Willow or Jesse to die? That I wanted to burn down the school gym at Hemery? I lost all my friends in LA. I lost my dad. And now I've lost the best friend I've ever had! I've had to give up everything just because some guy up there decided to give me these stupid powers. Do you think I like this? Then you're dead wrong. So go ahead and kill me. I dare you. No better yet, I beg of you, because even hell's got to be better than this!"
"Buffy don't..."
"Stay out of this Angel! This is between me and Xander."
At the sight of Buffy's tears Xander was torn between giving his friend a comforting hug and killing her. It got him thinking, because those two actions were way too different. It couldn't be right to want to do both at the same time. Maybe he was going about it the wrong way. Buffy and Giles were the only two people he cared about. Killing Buffy wasn't going to make him feel any better. And it would accomplish nothing, especially now that it seemed to be the most merciful thing he could do to her. Letting her live, that would be torture for her, and he intended to stick around to see it.
Yeah. He was going to remind the slayer of Willow's death at every opportunity. He was going to smile at the doomed relationship Buffy had with soulboy and be there when it blew up so he could laugh about it in her face. His revenge was going to be fun and lasting and he wouldn't even need to do anything for it.
"You know what. I changed my mind. I'm going to be generous and let you live." He smiled at her and turned around to head home, ignoring the fact that his only friend had collapsed to her knees, her sobs echoing throughout the cemetery.