:. Chapter Five :.
A/N: MS was pretty good. I'm totally going out to get the Romantic Melodies CD. Pretty songs. 'n guess what. I got my hair colored again. I'm a strawberry blonde. Again. Yay me! Okay. I just realized today is Wednesday and TOMORROW is Thursday, so I'll just go on with the fic now. :. Spike
I looked to the pond again, ready to see whatever came next. The frozen water rippled and Xander appeared, looking tired and dirty. He looked around the school bus, then exited and walked up to Andrew.
"Sound?" I asked.
"No, what was she like?" Xander was saying. Andrew looked down.
"She was amazing. She died saving my life." He said. Xander put his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"That's my girl." He said, eyes becoming bright with held back tears. "Always doing the stupid thing." I lost the sound again, seeing as the old man had more to say.
"Losing Anya had a large impact on Xander. The two of them had been slowly drifting back towards each other." He explained. "He still loved her. Losses had been hitting him hard lately. The loss of his eye, the near loss of his best friend, and the loss of his love." I remained silent. Loss was something I knew well.
The image changed, showing Xander in a hospital.
"Xander recently replaced his missing eye with a glass one for looks, and is saving to be able to have a false eye, so he can have sight in both eyes again." The man continued. "He is back in the construction business, having found someone a friend had referred him to."
That was good. The kid was good at a few things, and one of those was building.
"So, um, how did he take me saving the world?" I asked, curious to whether Xander resented my heroism or not. The old man smiled.
"He finally realized there is more than good and evil in race. He has a respect for you now, and your sacrifice helped him to forgive Angel as well." He replied. I smirked.
"Hm, didn't mean to do that." I commented flippantly. The man frowned.
"It's not a bad thing, William." He said. "Angel's not the villain. I know the two of you have, ah, unresolved issues, but it's not wrong for you to help each other our now and again. You're on the same path, you know."
"Yeah, a path where one of us is gonna end up being alive and the other goes poof." I replied. "I'm just making sure it's not gonna be me in the ash tray." The man sighed. I guess he wanted us to call a truce or something. As if that would happen.
"so. We were talking about Xander." I moved on. The man nodded, face clearing.
"Yes, that's right. Now, Xander found common ground with the witch, Willow. They are currently living together. The realized neither would be betraying their lost lovers by bring together." He continued. I smiled. Xander and Willow were finally together. I'd always known it would come down to the two of them. I mean, Tara and Anya were great. But Willow and Xander were made for each other. I realized I was being the hopeless romantic again and turned back to the pool innocently.
The picture there made my smile widen. Willow and Xander were working on a bookshelf for their apartment. Xander said something to Willow, then turned away. The board he had been holding up just floated there. He turned back around with a screwdriver and looked at the flying board in surprise. Willow giggled. Xander joined in. The redhead laughed so hard the board fell, which made both of them laugh even harder.
"They look pretty happy." I said. The man nodded.
"They are very happy together." He replied. "They still all meet at the re-built and relocated Magic Box. Nothing really changed." A picture of the inside of a small shop appeared.
It was the same old Magic Box, but different. The large table in the middle of the room was new, and the layout was different.
"Xander helped to build the shop. Willow helps to run it. They also all run a Slayer training center there." The old man continued. "Willow teaches magic, earth-magic, to the Slayers. . .simple, useful spells, like locating spells, healing spells, spells to contact for help, shielding spells, things like that. She also sells items with Mr. Giles."
"Ah, yeah. Good ol' Rupes." I said coolly. He wasn't someone I forgave easily either. I still had a light friendship, but it was dusted with mistrust. I hadn't forgotten how he had set me up to be killed by the principal. That wasn't something you just forgave.
"He too learned his ways, William." The old man said gently.
"So he'll stop setting the good guys up to be dusted then?" I asked.
"After he realized you really meant to help instead of harm, he understood his mistake. He thought it was to late to apologize to you, but he did apologize to Buffy. He admitted he was wrong, and explained how he knew you were on the right side." The man said. "Buffy forgave him, though it took quite a bit of convincing. It was his idea to set up the new Magic Box."
"Good for him. We were talking about Willow, right?" I changed the subject quickly. I really didn't want to talk about Giles, converted or not. Not on my list of favorite conversation topics, with the killing and the hating. The vengeance I still half-wanted would probably summon two or three vengeance demons.
"All right. The witch." The man said understandingly. I was glad he didn't press matters. That would have made me cranky and then I would pout and get all Angel-like because my soul would keep me from going off to kill someone to ease the crankiness. I guess I could always go kill some demon, but then it would make it a bit harder to go drown my sorrows in Willy's finest.
"Willow and Kennedy ended up not getting along very well. Kennedy wanted to bring Willow into her big, fancy, rich life, and Willow wanted to move off with her friends. They had argument after argument until they finally went their own ways." The man said. That was all right, and kind of a relief. I knew obviously things hadn't worked out, and I was glad. Never liked Kennedy. She was a real brat.
"Willow then turned to Xander, once again. They both realized they had always loved each other. And together, they decided they wouldn't be betraying their lovers who had died by loving each other. I think everyone knew they would be together in the end. So Willow gave up her title as a lesbian and turned straight and to Xander." The old man said. I smiled watching as the two of them went out for ice-cream, then more recently decorating a Christmas tree with little menorahs, representing both of their celebrations.
"It was always them." I agreed. The image changed, showing Willow performing some magic for a group of girls, the Slayers.
"She has found the essence of true, white magic and has been working to transfer some of her favorite dark-arts spells into pure magic, finding new and better ways to perform the once harmful magic." The man continued. I was glad. She did love doing magic, though it got her in trouble. I remembered one of my personal favorite flukes where Buffy and I nearly got married. I remembered when she corrected her mistake and Buffy and I quickly broke a passionate kiss. I had watched her face carefully, wondering what her reaction would be. She began to freak, so I copied. Truthfully, it hadn't been that bad. I hadn't exactly been in love with her then, but it hadn't been the worst of experiences.
I suddenly realized the old man was watching me with a curious look on his face.
"What?" I asked, kind of wondering what all he could do, like reading minds, maybe?
"What are you thinking of, William?" he asked. I grinned sheepishly.
"Just remembering some of the more entertaining bloopers in Red's spell-casting." I replied.
"Like the incident where you lost your memory perhaps?" the man suggested. An image came on screen, everyone waking up and freaking out because they didn't know who they were or anyone else was. I was on the counter in that awful suit I had stolen off of. . .what was that bloke's name? Oh, I grinned, Randy. I remembered freaking out, thinking Giles, my "father" had named me Randy Giles.
"That was fun." I remarked.
"Or maybe the spell in which you did whatever the witch wanted?" he said, eyes glinting so I knew he knew what I had been thinking.
"Or what about bringing Buffy back to life?" He continued. My smile faded, remembering how scared and silent Buffy had been that night. How scared and utterly pissed off I had been when I realized they had brought her back to life without even bothering to dig her from her grave.
The image showed when she had first come down the stairs, looking so timid, like she was afraid of what I would think. Dawn had been happy, but somewhat sad, as if she knew some of her sister was still in that grave.
"I was talking about the mess-ups. Bringing Buffy back to life was not a mistake." I said firmly. Buffy could never be a mistake.
"Disastrous consequences came with bringing Buffy back to life. The whole reason you had to die was because brining Buffy back brought on unbalance. If she had stayed dead as she was supposed to, many things never would have happened." The man pointed out. "You never would have had to die, or get a soul, or spend time with Angel. Tara would never had died, nor Anya, Willow would never have tried to destroy the world, all those girls never would have died, there never would have been a war-" I cut the man off there angrily.
"Demon bikers would have destroyed Sunnydale, and possibly the world, Willow and Xander would never have found each other, Dawn never would have been able to prove herself to Buffy and all of us as a helpful fighter, All those Slayers never would have been Slayers, Willow would never have found pure magic, the First would have eventually found a way to start the war. . ." I paused in my ranting, taking a deep breath. "And I wouldn't be here now." The man nodded.
"Precisely. You wouldn't be here. You would be off doing whatever you like to do, without worrying about Buffy or anything. You wouldn't have been sitting dejectedly in that bar on Christmas Eve. You'd be off having an adventure or something of the sort." The man agreed. I shook my head impatiently.
"No, that's not what I mean. If I hadn't staked myself out of pure depression, which I came close to doing a few times, I would have been killed anyway. Just before the war, the chip the Initiative put into my head that sent bolts of electricity through my brain whenever I attempted to harm a human malfunctioned. It started going off on its own. Sooner or later it would have killed me. Buffy made the decision to have it removed. No one else would have. No one else had the authority." I explained grimly.
"If Buffy hadn't returned, I would be dead." I concluded, looking up.
:. End Chapter Five.
Fun. Not so much with the long, but whatever.
This is the part where I address reviews. Adpi24? Yeah. . .kinda knew that. Kinda cheered when that happened. Never liked Quentin. But I wanted to do something fun like that so I did some more altering. I like to alter. If only I could do dresses. . .
CelticCat: Hey, dude, gimee what, two more chapters and THEN. . .THEN I can start with the Spuffiness. You'll see. Just a bit more to explain.
Everyone Else: Wowie! Ya know I popped on here, gettin' ready to post 'n all and I clicked on to my Stats page. . .I woke up ten minutes later on the floor. jeeminy Christmas! From 11 to 25. More than I expected. So a big thanx and gummi worms to all my adoring fans! (steals all the yellow-red gummi worms then throws packages minus yellow-reds to all the people)
A'ight. Next up we've got the Odd Out Of Place Spike VS Angel bit I absolutely could not resist putting in there, and then. . .and then. . .uh oh. I think I need to go write some more * ducks back into her little hole Pylea-Fred style *.
(calling out all echo-like) Leave your reviews in the little box. . .box. . .box. . .box. . .
A/N: MS was pretty good. I'm totally going out to get the Romantic Melodies CD. Pretty songs. 'n guess what. I got my hair colored again. I'm a strawberry blonde. Again. Yay me! Okay. I just realized today is Wednesday and TOMORROW is Thursday, so I'll just go on with the fic now. :. Spike
I looked to the pond again, ready to see whatever came next. The frozen water rippled and Xander appeared, looking tired and dirty. He looked around the school bus, then exited and walked up to Andrew.
"Sound?" I asked.
"No, what was she like?" Xander was saying. Andrew looked down.
"She was amazing. She died saving my life." He said. Xander put his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"That's my girl." He said, eyes becoming bright with held back tears. "Always doing the stupid thing." I lost the sound again, seeing as the old man had more to say.
"Losing Anya had a large impact on Xander. The two of them had been slowly drifting back towards each other." He explained. "He still loved her. Losses had been hitting him hard lately. The loss of his eye, the near loss of his best friend, and the loss of his love." I remained silent. Loss was something I knew well.
The image changed, showing Xander in a hospital.
"Xander recently replaced his missing eye with a glass one for looks, and is saving to be able to have a false eye, so he can have sight in both eyes again." The man continued. "He is back in the construction business, having found someone a friend had referred him to."
That was good. The kid was good at a few things, and one of those was building.
"So, um, how did he take me saving the world?" I asked, curious to whether Xander resented my heroism or not. The old man smiled.
"He finally realized there is more than good and evil in race. He has a respect for you now, and your sacrifice helped him to forgive Angel as well." He replied. I smirked.
"Hm, didn't mean to do that." I commented flippantly. The man frowned.
"It's not a bad thing, William." He said. "Angel's not the villain. I know the two of you have, ah, unresolved issues, but it's not wrong for you to help each other our now and again. You're on the same path, you know."
"Yeah, a path where one of us is gonna end up being alive and the other goes poof." I replied. "I'm just making sure it's not gonna be me in the ash tray." The man sighed. I guess he wanted us to call a truce or something. As if that would happen.
"so. We were talking about Xander." I moved on. The man nodded, face clearing.
"Yes, that's right. Now, Xander found common ground with the witch, Willow. They are currently living together. The realized neither would be betraying their lost lovers by bring together." He continued. I smiled. Xander and Willow were finally together. I'd always known it would come down to the two of them. I mean, Tara and Anya were great. But Willow and Xander were made for each other. I realized I was being the hopeless romantic again and turned back to the pool innocently.
The picture there made my smile widen. Willow and Xander were working on a bookshelf for their apartment. Xander said something to Willow, then turned away. The board he had been holding up just floated there. He turned back around with a screwdriver and looked at the flying board in surprise. Willow giggled. Xander joined in. The redhead laughed so hard the board fell, which made both of them laugh even harder.
"They look pretty happy." I said. The man nodded.
"They are very happy together." He replied. "They still all meet at the re-built and relocated Magic Box. Nothing really changed." A picture of the inside of a small shop appeared.
It was the same old Magic Box, but different. The large table in the middle of the room was new, and the layout was different.
"Xander helped to build the shop. Willow helps to run it. They also all run a Slayer training center there." The old man continued. "Willow teaches magic, earth-magic, to the Slayers. . .simple, useful spells, like locating spells, healing spells, spells to contact for help, shielding spells, things like that. She also sells items with Mr. Giles."
"Ah, yeah. Good ol' Rupes." I said coolly. He wasn't someone I forgave easily either. I still had a light friendship, but it was dusted with mistrust. I hadn't forgotten how he had set me up to be killed by the principal. That wasn't something you just forgave.
"He too learned his ways, William." The old man said gently.
"So he'll stop setting the good guys up to be dusted then?" I asked.
"After he realized you really meant to help instead of harm, he understood his mistake. He thought it was to late to apologize to you, but he did apologize to Buffy. He admitted he was wrong, and explained how he knew you were on the right side." The man said. "Buffy forgave him, though it took quite a bit of convincing. It was his idea to set up the new Magic Box."
"Good for him. We were talking about Willow, right?" I changed the subject quickly. I really didn't want to talk about Giles, converted or not. Not on my list of favorite conversation topics, with the killing and the hating. The vengeance I still half-wanted would probably summon two or three vengeance demons.
"All right. The witch." The man said understandingly. I was glad he didn't press matters. That would have made me cranky and then I would pout and get all Angel-like because my soul would keep me from going off to kill someone to ease the crankiness. I guess I could always go kill some demon, but then it would make it a bit harder to go drown my sorrows in Willy's finest.
"Willow and Kennedy ended up not getting along very well. Kennedy wanted to bring Willow into her big, fancy, rich life, and Willow wanted to move off with her friends. They had argument after argument until they finally went their own ways." The man said. That was all right, and kind of a relief. I knew obviously things hadn't worked out, and I was glad. Never liked Kennedy. She was a real brat.
"Willow then turned to Xander, once again. They both realized they had always loved each other. And together, they decided they wouldn't be betraying their lovers who had died by loving each other. I think everyone knew they would be together in the end. So Willow gave up her title as a lesbian and turned straight and to Xander." The old man said. I smiled watching as the two of them went out for ice-cream, then more recently decorating a Christmas tree with little menorahs, representing both of their celebrations.
"It was always them." I agreed. The image changed, showing Willow performing some magic for a group of girls, the Slayers.
"She has found the essence of true, white magic and has been working to transfer some of her favorite dark-arts spells into pure magic, finding new and better ways to perform the once harmful magic." The man continued. I was glad. She did love doing magic, though it got her in trouble. I remembered one of my personal favorite flukes where Buffy and I nearly got married. I remembered when she corrected her mistake and Buffy and I quickly broke a passionate kiss. I had watched her face carefully, wondering what her reaction would be. She began to freak, so I copied. Truthfully, it hadn't been that bad. I hadn't exactly been in love with her then, but it hadn't been the worst of experiences.
I suddenly realized the old man was watching me with a curious look on his face.
"What?" I asked, kind of wondering what all he could do, like reading minds, maybe?
"What are you thinking of, William?" he asked. I grinned sheepishly.
"Just remembering some of the more entertaining bloopers in Red's spell-casting." I replied.
"Like the incident where you lost your memory perhaps?" the man suggested. An image came on screen, everyone waking up and freaking out because they didn't know who they were or anyone else was. I was on the counter in that awful suit I had stolen off of. . .what was that bloke's name? Oh, I grinned, Randy. I remembered freaking out, thinking Giles, my "father" had named me Randy Giles.
"That was fun." I remarked.
"Or maybe the spell in which you did whatever the witch wanted?" he said, eyes glinting so I knew he knew what I had been thinking.
"Or what about bringing Buffy back to life?" He continued. My smile faded, remembering how scared and silent Buffy had been that night. How scared and utterly pissed off I had been when I realized they had brought her back to life without even bothering to dig her from her grave.
The image showed when she had first come down the stairs, looking so timid, like she was afraid of what I would think. Dawn had been happy, but somewhat sad, as if she knew some of her sister was still in that grave.
"I was talking about the mess-ups. Bringing Buffy back to life was not a mistake." I said firmly. Buffy could never be a mistake.
"Disastrous consequences came with bringing Buffy back to life. The whole reason you had to die was because brining Buffy back brought on unbalance. If she had stayed dead as she was supposed to, many things never would have happened." The man pointed out. "You never would have had to die, or get a soul, or spend time with Angel. Tara would never had died, nor Anya, Willow would never have tried to destroy the world, all those girls never would have died, there never would have been a war-" I cut the man off there angrily.
"Demon bikers would have destroyed Sunnydale, and possibly the world, Willow and Xander would never have found each other, Dawn never would have been able to prove herself to Buffy and all of us as a helpful fighter, All those Slayers never would have been Slayers, Willow would never have found pure magic, the First would have eventually found a way to start the war. . ." I paused in my ranting, taking a deep breath. "And I wouldn't be here now." The man nodded.
"Precisely. You wouldn't be here. You would be off doing whatever you like to do, without worrying about Buffy or anything. You wouldn't have been sitting dejectedly in that bar on Christmas Eve. You'd be off having an adventure or something of the sort." The man agreed. I shook my head impatiently.
"No, that's not what I mean. If I hadn't staked myself out of pure depression, which I came close to doing a few times, I would have been killed anyway. Just before the war, the chip the Initiative put into my head that sent bolts of electricity through my brain whenever I attempted to harm a human malfunctioned. It started going off on its own. Sooner or later it would have killed me. Buffy made the decision to have it removed. No one else would have. No one else had the authority." I explained grimly.
"If Buffy hadn't returned, I would be dead." I concluded, looking up.
:. End Chapter Five.
Fun. Not so much with the long, but whatever.
This is the part where I address reviews. Adpi24? Yeah. . .kinda knew that. Kinda cheered when that happened. Never liked Quentin. But I wanted to do something fun like that so I did some more altering. I like to alter. If only I could do dresses. . .
CelticCat: Hey, dude, gimee what, two more chapters and THEN. . .THEN I can start with the Spuffiness. You'll see. Just a bit more to explain.
Everyone Else: Wowie! Ya know I popped on here, gettin' ready to post 'n all and I clicked on to my Stats page. . .I woke up ten minutes later on the floor. jeeminy Christmas! From 11 to 25. More than I expected. So a big thanx and gummi worms to all my adoring fans! (steals all the yellow-red gummi worms then throws packages minus yellow-reds to all the people)
A'ight. Next up we've got the Odd Out Of Place Spike VS Angel bit I absolutely could not resist putting in there, and then. . .and then. . .uh oh. I think I need to go write some more * ducks back into her little hole Pylea-Fred style *.
(calling out all echo-like) Leave your reviews in the little box. . .box. . .box. . .box. . .