Chapter 53
Dawn was waiting by the front door when Buffy and Angel walked in. Buffy was surprised to see her and Dawn kicked Buffy in the shin. "Ow."
"Dumbass." Dawn said. Buffy looked over at Xander who was in the dining room with Anya, Giles, Connor, and Willow.
"Don't look at me." He said. "This is a Summers' thing. It's all very violent."
"If you get killed, I'm telling." Buffy said to Dawn.
"Did you find out anything about the scythe?" Willow asked.
Buffy looked at Angel with a knowing grin. "It slices, dices, and makes julienne preacher."
"Caleb?" Connor asked.
"She cut him in half." Angel said.
"All right!" Willow cheered.
"He had that coming." Anya said.
"Go Buffy!" Connor said.
"Hey, party in my eye socket and everyone's invited." Everyone stared at Xander. "Sometimes I shouldn't say words."
Buffy looked at Giles. "Where's Spike?
"In the basement." Giles said.
She nodded and looked at Angel. "I'll go call LA." With that, he walked out. Buffy turned and headed to the basement. Spike was punching a punching bag when she walked down the stairs.
"So…. where's tall, dark and forehead?" Spike asked.
"Let me guess. You can smell him."
"Yeah, that and I also used my enhanced vampire eyeballs to watch you kissing him."
"It was…. a thank you."
"Most people don't use their tongues to say thank you. Or I guess they do, but…."
"He's upstairs calling his friends in LA."
"So, he's not leaving, then?"
"Good, good. I haven't had quite enough jealous vampire crap for one night."
"He wears lifts, you know."
Buffy looked over at the punching bag that Spike was hitting and saw something had been taped to it. It was a sketch drawn in black marker on white paper that showed hair that stuck straight up, X's for eyes and fangs on the frowny face. Buffy rolled her eyes at the representation of Angel.
"You know, one of these days I'm just gonna put you 2 in a room and let you wrestle it out." She said.
Spike rifled through an empty cigarette package. "No problem at this end." He threw the package away in disgust.
"There could be oil of some kind involved."
"Where's the trinket?"
"The who-ket?"
"The pretty necklace your sweetie-bear gave you. The one with all the power. I believe it's mine now."
"How do you figure?"
"Someone with a soul, but more than human? Angel meant to wear it, but since you wouldn't let him and he wouldn't let you, that means I'm the qualified party." He held out his hand.
"It's volatile. We don't know…."
"You'll be needing someone strong to bear it, then. You planning on giving it to Andrew?"
"Angel's going to wear it. He's stubborn."
"You don't have to tell me that."
"I just wanted to come check on you. See how you were doing."
"As you say…. I'm peachy."
"You know, Angel said the amulet is supposed to be worn by a champion." Spike stopped punching the bag and looked at her. "I wanted you to wear it."
"Well…. I've been called a lot of things in my life."
"You are a champion, Spike. At least…. I believe you are." Buffy smiled and headed up the stairs. She walked into the living room as Angel hung up the phone. "They're getting things ready." He said.
"Thank you." She said.
"Any time." Angel bounced on the balls of his feet for a second. "So…."
"I with you were leading the second front, but I'm more grateful that you're at my side. It means a lot that you won't leave me this time." She smiled. "It's a confidence booster." Angel chuckled. "I got bad news though. Faith's still got my room."
He smiled. "My old apartment's closer than the mansion. Do you…. I've still got the key."
"That sounds like a good idea. Besides, it'll give me time to think and get things straight in my head without all the noise."
"Go grab a bag. I'll wait outside."
She smiled and headed up the stairs.
Buffy and Angel were lying in his old bed together at his old apartment. Connor was asleep in the other room on a cot. His room had been taken over by girls again and he didn't know Faith enough to sleep in the same room as her. Angel had his arm around her and she played with his hand. He rolled over, accidentally removing his arm from her, and she sat up. She stood and paced around the small bedroom and looked out the window, staring at the night sky when Caleb/The First appeared.
"Pretty, ain't it?" It asked.
"You're not him." Buffy said.
"No, you killed him right and proper. Terrible loss. This man was my good right arm. Course, it don't pain me too much. Don't need an arm. Got an army."
"An army of vampires. However will I fight…."
"Every day our numbers swell. But then you do have an army of your own. Some thirty-odd pimply-faced girls, don't know the pointy end of a stake. Maybe I should call this off."
"Have you ever considered a cool name? I mean, since you're incorporeal and basically powerless. How about The Taunter? Strikes fear in the heart…."
"I will overrun this Earth. And when my army outnumbers the humans on this Earth, the scales will tip and I will be made flesh."
"Talk on. I'm not afraid of you."
"Then why aren't you asleep in your dead lover's arms? Cause he can't help you. Nor the other vampire, nor Faith, nor your friends, certainly not your wanna-slay brigade. None of those girlies will ever know real power unless you're dead. You know the drill," It morphed into Buffy's form. "Into every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world. She alone will have the strength and skill to…. There's that word again. What you are. How you'll die. Alone. Where's your snappy comeback?"
"You're right."
"Hmm. Not your best."
"Buffy?" Angel asked from the bed. He sat up and Buffy turned to look at him. She looked back, but Buffy/The First had disappeared. "Is something wrong?"
"No. Yeah. I just realized something. Something that really never occurred to me before." He stood up and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to his bare chest. "Angel, we're gonna win."
"How do you figure?"
"The scythe."
"What's going on?" Connor asked, sitting up on his cot.
"Strategy planning."
"This late?"
Buffy shrugged. "Why not?"
Connor stood up. "Ok. What's the plan?"
Buffy stood in her room back at her house with everyone but the Potentials staring at her. Angel stood next to her with his arms crossed and a proud smile on his face. "What do you think?" Buffy asked the room.
"That depends." Xander said. "Are you in any way…. kidding?"
"You don't think it's a good idea?"
"It's pretty radical, B." Faith said.
"It's a lot more than that." Giles said. "Buffy, what you said, it…. it flies in the face of everything we've ever…. every generation has ever done in the fight against evil. I think it's bloody brilliant."
"You mean that?"
"If you want my opinion."
"I really do."
"Whoa, hey." Willow said. "Not to poop on the party here, but I'm the guy that's gonna have to pull this thing off."
"It is beaucoup d'mojo." Faith said.
"This goes beyond anything I've ever done. It's a total loss of control, and not in a nice, wholesome, my girlfriend has a pierced tongue kind of way."
"I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it." Buffy said.
"I…. I'm not sure that I'm stable enough."
"You can do this, Willow." Angel said. He nodded assuringly to Willow, knowing what she did for him in LA.
"Yes." Giles agreed. "We'll get the coven on the line, and we'll find out how they can help."
"Oh!" Dawn suddenly said. "Pierced tongue."
"Dawn needs to do a research thing." Buffy said.
"Yes, you do." Giles said.
"It's cool." Dawn stood and walked out. "Watcher junior to the library."
"I'll go dig up my sources. Quite literally, actually." Giles walked out of the room.
Anya looked at Xander. "Come on, let's go assemble the cannon fodder."
"That's not what we're calling them, sweetie." Xander said, walking out with her.
"Not to their faces. What, am I insensitive?"
Buffy handed the scythe over to Willow and looked up at Angel. Willow walked out and Faith said, "Yo, I'll get everyone rounded up downstairs." She noticed the way Buffy and Angel were looking at each other and then grabbed Connor on her way out. "Come on, Angel Jr. You can lay on the charm and lure the girls in to the living room for Buffy."
"Thanks." Buffy said, her eyes still locked on Angel's.
"You're ok." Angel said quietly.
"I know. You're here." She stepped towards him and he stepped towards her, their lips meeting in the middle. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Not leaving."
"And I'll be by your side when you address your troops, general." She smiled. "That title suits you."
"Maybe I should get an outfit." Angel lifted his eyebrows with playful desire dancing in his brown eyes. She laughed. "Come on." Buffy took a deep breath and headed down the stairs. Everyone was gathered in the living room. All eyes were riveted on her. The last time this display had played out, they had tried to kick her out of the house. The outcome of this one was scary as hell, but she knew she had the support of the people closest to her. Everything was as it should be now.
"I hate this." Buffy said. "I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there's evil and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish a whole lot of the time that I hadn't been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been, either." She noticed the guilty movements of everyone that had abandoned her last time. "But this isn't about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes. Not when its army is ready. Now. Tomorrow morning I'm opening the Seal. I'm going down into the Hellmouth and I'm finishing this once and for all. Right now you're asking yourselves what makes this different. What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one? It's true. None of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice." She paused, just for dramatic effect. "What if you could have that power? Now? In every generation one Slayer is born because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men." Buffy pointed at Willow, who smiled nervously at the room. "This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer, will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Can stand up, will stand up. Slayers. Every one of us." Buffy looked around the room at the nervous, anxious, but excited faces. "Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?"
That night, Buffy and Angel walked around Sunnydale in silence, hand-in-hand. She was terrified of tomorrow. Angel could feel it. But he knew she would succeed. She was his Buffy. She always succeeded because she never stopped giving it her all. Even at her lowest point, she still gave all she could. It was that heart that Angel had seen that day in LA all those years ago. It was that strength and resilience and spirit that he had fallen so deeply in love with.
"Angel?" Buffy asked quietly.
"Yes?"
She stopped and looked up at him. He studied her nervous eyes and waited for her to continue. "If something happens to me tomorrow…."
"Buffy, nothing's…."
"No. Please, just listen. Ok?" He nodded. "If something happens to me tomorrow, I need you to make sure Dawn and Connor are taken care of. And my friends. And my Slayers. I need to know that they'll all be ok if I'm not there to watch after them."
Angel shook his head. "Nothing's going to happen to you."
"If it does…. Promise me, ok? If nothing else, promise that you'll keep Dawn and Connor safe and make sure they'll be ok without me."
He looked down at their clasped hands. Hers were so tiny in his. He brought her palm to his lips and kissed it, straying there for a long moment. Then he met her eyes with tears in his and said, "I promise. I promise with all my heart and my soul and all the love I hold for you that Dawn and our son will never want for anything. I promise I'll take care of Dawn as if she's my own sister."
"Thank you." She smiled. "You said 'our son.'"
"You caught that, huh?"
"I need one more thing."
"Buffy…."
"I also want you to promise that you'll go on. That you'll find some form of happiness if I'm not around." A tear coursed down his cheek and she wiped it away.
"That's a promise I can't make. The last time was so hard…. I got so lost in my head and things went so wrong around me. I honestly don't know what I would do again if…. You're going to be fine. You're going to make it through this thing and the next thing and the next…. And one day, we'll be together again as we should've been. I'll take you on a real date. No demons, no vampires, no crazy films with kimonos and food. Just you and me in a fancy restaurant all dressed up. Then maybe afterwards we can go to a play or an opera. I'll even pay for everything so it'll be like we're a normal couple." Buffy let out a short snort of laughter and he gave her a pained smile as her tears fell down her cheeks. "When you're cookies."
She let out a choked laugh and nodded. "When I'm cookies."
Angel leaned down and kissed her deeply, not ever wanting to let her go.
