CHAPTER 4
Historical Note: This story takes place during the seventh season of Buffy, during the series finale.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from either Buffy or Angel; although I wish I did!!
Authors Note: After watching the final episode of Buffy, I was a little disappointed that Angel wasn't there for the actual battle, so I decided to re-write the last episode including Angel in the final battle. It bugged me sooo much that Angel wasn't right there with her, so this is my way of dealing with it, LOL. Otherwise, everything else is the same. Also, since it broke my heart to see Xander's eye get gouged out, I'm just going to pretend it never happened!
Summary: The apocalypse is drawing dangerously close for Buffy and the group, and with the potential slayers being killed off one by one, both Buffy and Faith are realizing this time both slayers may be in over their head.
Then all of a sudden, someone from Buffy's past comes to help them with the fight; causing old feelings to stir. Faced with what seems to be the final battle; Buffy is forced to face her past as well as her greatest love; as he joins her in the last battle.
Disclaimer II: A good amount; not all, but a good amount came from a book called 'Chosen.' I just wanted to make a note of that. I'm not trying to pass this whole story as being all my idea, obviously. But the idea of having Angel stay there for the fight was in fact mine, so there!
A little while later, Buffy entered the house. She looked around and realized everyone had gone to bed. Which was no surprise, everyone was beat. She sighed as she walked up the stairs. All she wanted was a hot bath, but she was too tired for it, so instead she settled for going straight to bed.
She quietly shut the door carefully as she entered her room. She then went directly for her dresser and pulled out her pajama top and a pair of shorts.
She quickly pulled off her pants and shirt and pulled on her pajamas. As she walked over to her bed, she suddenly sensed someone else was in the room. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up at the thought of it being the First.
"Who's there?" Buffy asked in a hushed voice as she walked over to the other side of her bed.
"It's me," a deep voice assured her.
"Angel? What are you doing in here?" she asked. Angel stood up and walked over to her.
"I'm sorry if I scared you, but Giles told me this was the only place that there was room for me," he explained. "But If you're uncomfortable-" he began as he gestured towards the door.
"No, no. It's ok, really, I was just started is all," she explained. Angel nodded.
"So tomorrow it is," Angel said. Buffy sighed as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Yup," she said as Angel walked over and sat down next to her on the edge of the bed.
"We'll make it," he told her.
"I hope you're right, 'cause dying...is such a pain," she said. Angel chuckled.
"That it is," he agreed. The two of them then say in silence. He felt weird knowing Buffy had found her way into Spike's arms...several times. He had been jealous; although he didn't admit it; when he heard that Spike had begun to fight along side Buffy a year ago. Angle had and would always think of it as his spot.
Buffy looked at him and studied his features. She knew he was thinking about something hard.
"What are you thinking about?" she finally asked him. Angel snapped out of thought and looked at her.
"About the battle," he lied.
"Yeah I know. I am too," she admitted.
"I should let you get some rest," Angel said as he got up from the bed. Buffy caught his hand.
"I don't want you to sleep on the floor," she told him. Angel just stood and looked at her.
"Buffy, we, we can't..." he reminded her.
"I know, but can you just lay here and hold me?" she asked. Buffy then thought back to the other night when she had asked Spike the same thing. She felt guilty for asking Angel to do the same thing, but she was so confused right now, and all she wanted right now was for the man, or vampire she never stopped loving, to hold her.
"Sure," he said as he walked back over and sat on the bed as Buffy pushed over. She waited for Angel to lay back before cuddling close to him. Instinctively, Angel wrapped his arms around her, and the two just lay like that. It felt like old times to the both of them. When they had been together; before Angel had left, they'd lay together the same way. Buffy remembered feeling like she was safe whenever she was in his arms; like nothing could hurt her, and even now, she found herself feeling the same way.
A little while later, the two of them fell asleep holding each other. They had talked about old times for a little while, and then they had both just fallen asleep. A few hours later, Spike quietly opened the door thinking Buffy was alone. He felt his heart break when he opened the door to find Angel and Buffy holding each other while they slept. Spike slowly and quietly closed the door letting the ex lover's sleep. He then quietly made his way back to the basement.
As soon as he watched Angel and Buffy kiss back in the old Crypt, he knew she was still in love with him, and finally realized that she would never love him the same way. I should've known, he thought to himself.
"Soldier boy couldn't even win the battle over Buffy; she would always love Angel; how could I have thought I'd do any better?" he asked himself down in the basement.
~*~
The next day, Buffy gathered the Scooby gang in her roomto be the first to hear the plan she had thought of and give out suggestions before she told the potentials. She'd clue the Potentials in later, after everyone else was set on the plan.
Everyone looked at her in disbelief as she finished explaining the plan she thought of the night before.
"What do you think?" Buffy asked the group. She stood with Faith at her side as she held the scythe in her hands.
"That depends. Are you in anyway...kidding?" Xander asked.
"You don't think it's a good idea?" she asked.
"It's pretty radical, B," Faith told her as she imagined how it'd play out in her head. Everyone else say in silence imagining it as well.
"It's a lot more than that," Giles said as he stood up. " Buffy what you said; it, it flies in the face of everything we've, we've ever-that every generation- has ever done in the fight against evil, he explained.
He then smiled broadly. "I think it's bloody brilliant," he added impressed. Faith smiled as well.
"You mean that?" Buffy asked.
Giles shrugged. "If you want my opinion,"
"I really do," she said warmly. Giles smiled at her again.
"Whoa, hey, not to poop the party," Willow said concerned, "But I'm the guy who's going to have to pull this off," she reminded the group.
"It is beaucoup d' mojo," Faith said.
"This goes beyond anything I've ever done," she told them. "It's a total loss of control, and not in a nice wholesome 'My Girlfriend has a pierce tongue sort of way'" she added with a nod. Giles and the group made an uncomfortable face. Angel couldn't help but smile. He had found out just recently when Willow went to L.A. to re insoul him that she was gay now.
"I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it," Buffy told her. Willow still wore a worried expression.
"I, I'm not sure I'm stable enough," she admitted.
"You can do this, Willow. We'll get the coven on the line and, and find out how they can help," Giles explained.
"Oh!" Dawn exclaimed. "Pierced tongue," she muttered in realization as everyone looked at her. Willow gave Buffy an apologetic look.
"Dawn needs to do a research thing," Buffy said to Giles quickly.
"Yes, we do," he agreed quickly as he got up.
"It's cool. Watcher junior to the library," Dawn said as she got up and walked to towards the door with Giles not too far ahead.
"I'll um, start digging up my sources," Giles said as he thought. He then looked up at the group as he walked towards the door. "Literally, actually; there's one or two people I need to talk to who are dead," he explained before leaving.
"Come on. Let's go assemble the cannon fodder," Anya said to Xander after Giles and Dawn disappeared out the door.
"That's not what were calling them sweetie," Xander reminded her as they walked out to the door.
"Not to their faces. What, am I insensitive?" she asked as they disappeared down the hallway.
Willow got up from the bed as Buffy walked over to her with the scythe. The two girls looked directly at each other as Buffy placed the scythe into Willow's hands with a silent understanding and agreement.
~*~
A few hours later, Buffy had the Potentials all in the living room, and was clueing them in on the plan. She had to pull the shades down all in the room so that Angel and Spike could be present without being charbroiled.
"I hate this. 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," she told them as she slowly walked into the room.
"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 said as she looked around the room.
"But this isn't about wishes; this is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil," she paused. "Not when it comes; not when it's army's ready, now," she said. "Tomorrow morning, I'm opening the seal. I'm going down into the Hellmouth and I'm going to finish this once and for all," she explained. The potentials looked at her shocked.
"Right now, you're probably asking yourself what makes this different? What makes us any different from a bunch of girls getting picked off one by one?" she said as she slowly walked around the room. "It's true, none of you have the power that Faith and I do," she said as she looked back at Faith.
"So here's the part where you make a choice." She stopped and looked around.
"What if all you could have that power? Now. All of you?" she asked. She noticed she really had all of the Potentials attention now. "In every generation a Slayer is born because a bunch of guys that died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men," she said. She then pointed to Willow.
"This woman is more powerful than all of them combined," she told them with complete certainty in her voice. Willow just looked at her and smiled weakly.
"So I say we change the rules. I say my power should be our power.
Tomorrow Willow will use the essence of the scythe, that contains the energy and history of so many Slayers, 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. Who can stand up, will stand up," She told them. Every Potential in the room looked at Buffy in awe.
"Every one of you, and girls we've never known, and generations to come...they will have the strengths they never dreamed of, and more than that, they will have each other," she said.
"Slayers. Every one of us; make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?" she asked them.