Ripples: In Honor Of The Fallen
By Phoenixflame
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: The Series, and all affiliated characters belong to their respective owners (Joss Whedon, etc). Ideas and original characters belong to me.
Wesley told me that no Watchers Journal ever records what happens to the bodies of the Slayers that bit it. Something about demons desecrating the body or something.
It must have been five years ago, one year after she'd died for the last time. Giles was drunk, as he usually is on the aniversary, and I was in town dealing with an infestation of some sort of ugly horned demon that spit acid. We got together in the old Magic Shop, and I helped myself to some of his brandy while he was going on about B. Giles tends to get really wierd when he's drunk. If it weren't for the quality of the brandy, I'd be long gone. I didn't get out of jail just to listen to him whining about B, you know?
So right out of the blue, he says "She'd like it, where I put her. I had to..." He stopped, and swallowed down some more brandy. "...Dig up the body during the night. Willow would have been so... so..." He swallowed down some more. And I shit you not, he was crying his eyes out. He did manage to finish, though. "...So angry, but I think she would have understood. Buffy always love... loved the gardens at the mansion."
He rambled on after that, on and on. I ignored him, cause I was really pissed for a minute. Even dead, I had to fight with the memory of Angel. Not that I don't like the guy. Don't get me wrong, he's done a lot for me, and he moved on and all, but it was a bit too fucking late for B. It's the reason I stay out of the City of Angels on the date of her death.
But I never got to pay my respects, so I left Giles in his cups, and headed out to the mansion.
Nothing has ever taken up lair in the mansion since Angel. Don't know if it's because he did some wierd, male vampire marking of the territory, or if because of the jumbo-sized garden gnome with the sword sticking in it. Either way, I'm surprised I didn't think of it before for B.
Giles hadn't planted roses or lilies, or anything stupid and sentimental like that. Out in the middle of the night-blooming jasmine, and the wild roses, was a marker, underneath a statue of an angel. It said: "Buffy Summers. Warrior, Friend, and Savior." I kid you not.
I figured I should bring something to show my respects, so I grabbed some flowers from the garden, and put them down on the marker, and just stood staring there, down at the stone.
We were slayers. Sister slayers, side by side. She had friends, sure, but what we had goes deeper than blood, deeper than anything they can imagine. Slayers. Shit, we drank from the same cup, fought the same monsters, and understood each other in a way that sometimes really scared the shit out of me.
And now she's in the ground, dead. I'm not going to be stupid and say it's cause of me, but I felt pretty shitty. Here this beautiful girl who I fought side by side with is under the ground, because some fucking spawn of hell got the best of her. She's dead, and all I could think of was how much I missed her.
And the other thing? Hell, I'll never tell you. Some things are best left in the ground. But every year, I visit the mansion, and leave flowers on the marker.
B would have laughed at me. But I don't care.
By Phoenixflame
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: The Series, and all affiliated characters belong to their respective owners (Joss Whedon, etc). Ideas and original characters belong to me.
Wesley told me that no Watchers Journal ever records what happens to the bodies of the Slayers that bit it. Something about demons desecrating the body or something.
It must have been five years ago, one year after she'd died for the last time. Giles was drunk, as he usually is on the aniversary, and I was in town dealing with an infestation of some sort of ugly horned demon that spit acid. We got together in the old Magic Shop, and I helped myself to some of his brandy while he was going on about B. Giles tends to get really wierd when he's drunk. If it weren't for the quality of the brandy, I'd be long gone. I didn't get out of jail just to listen to him whining about B, you know?
So right out of the blue, he says "She'd like it, where I put her. I had to..." He stopped, and swallowed down some more brandy. "...Dig up the body during the night. Willow would have been so... so..." He swallowed down some more. And I shit you not, he was crying his eyes out. He did manage to finish, though. "...So angry, but I think she would have understood. Buffy always love... loved the gardens at the mansion."
He rambled on after that, on and on. I ignored him, cause I was really pissed for a minute. Even dead, I had to fight with the memory of Angel. Not that I don't like the guy. Don't get me wrong, he's done a lot for me, and he moved on and all, but it was a bit too fucking late for B. It's the reason I stay out of the City of Angels on the date of her death.
But I never got to pay my respects, so I left Giles in his cups, and headed out to the mansion.
Nothing has ever taken up lair in the mansion since Angel. Don't know if it's because he did some wierd, male vampire marking of the territory, or if because of the jumbo-sized garden gnome with the sword sticking in it. Either way, I'm surprised I didn't think of it before for B.
Giles hadn't planted roses or lilies, or anything stupid and sentimental like that. Out in the middle of the night-blooming jasmine, and the wild roses, was a marker, underneath a statue of an angel. It said: "Buffy Summers. Warrior, Friend, and Savior." I kid you not.
I figured I should bring something to show my respects, so I grabbed some flowers from the garden, and put them down on the marker, and just stood staring there, down at the stone.
We were slayers. Sister slayers, side by side. She had friends, sure, but what we had goes deeper than blood, deeper than anything they can imagine. Slayers. Shit, we drank from the same cup, fought the same monsters, and understood each other in a way that sometimes really scared the shit out of me.
And now she's in the ground, dead. I'm not going to be stupid and say it's cause of me, but I felt pretty shitty. Here this beautiful girl who I fought side by side with is under the ground, because some fucking spawn of hell got the best of her. She's dead, and all I could think of was how much I missed her.
And the other thing? Hell, I'll never tell you. Some things are best left in the ground. But every year, I visit the mansion, and leave flowers on the marker.
B would have laughed at me. But I don't care.