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.