Lying in the Garden
The finale!!
*wonders if anyone is still reading this fic*
And now on to the conclusion:
The light on the streets was dim as Buffy traced Spike's steps. The vampire was moving too quickly to be followed, but she couldn't stop. He had become the only truth in this new world, and stopping for even a second would leave her stranded and lost forever.
Every so often she would find a broken twig, or pick up the scent of the dead. Spike was close, every fiber of her being tingled, her natural slayer instincts kicked in even though they had not been used for years. It was still a part of her, still inside her. She was the slayer, and Spike was her prey.
The slayer ran through the night, just until it was nearly dawn. By the time Buffy spotted him again it was at the edge of the shores of Dockweiler Beach. From the dunes, she watched him silently, breathing slowly and taking the sight of him in.
"Target spotted, initiate contact," The slayer muttered to herself, though she couldn't bring herself to go down to him. To talk to the one person who could make sense of the world. What right did she have to invade his territory anymore, after making it clear she wanted nothing to do with him or the world she had left behind?
Standing sentient, from her vantage point high on the dunes, she stared at him until, after noticing someone watching him, Spike turned around and looked up towards where she stood. Their eyes met. Even from far away, Buffy could feel the heat of his stare. It unnerved her.
With an angel's grace, she followed the footsteps he had laid in the sand when he had first arrived at the shore. Slowly but surely, the slayer moved until she stood near him. "Spike... I..." Spike's eyes met hers once more, and she realized how close they were standing. Feeling lost in his ocean blue eyes, Buffy quickly glanced away, and for the first time noticed how close the sun was to rising.
"You said you wanted to end it Slayer, well, this is the end. Come to watch me burst into flames then. Would that make you happy?"
Turning back towards him, in a low voice she began, "I know you're mad but."
"Damn right, I'm mad." He shouted at her, "Do you have any idea how hard it was to get to you? Can you possibly understand what I risked in coming to what you are so eager to call 'home'?!" Pausing, to reign in his anger, voice breaking all the while, "I just wanted to feel you again. To touch you. the old you. I wanted what you helped destroy." He paused for a moment, thinking of the past, "You know, I don't understand it, but I even miss the others. The witches, niblet . even that bleeding nancy boy Xander."
Buffy tried to touch him, but the vampire pulled away and faced out to the horizon. The sun's rays were bouncing along the waters; soon it would be too late. Hurrying to find a way to convince Spike to get to shelter, Buffy started, "I want to go home with you."
"Why?" He turned back towards her with narrow eyes, "Because everything in this world is falling apart as much as the last one? You're just running away again, Buffy. It's all you ever do."
The slayer slapped him across the face, harshly, but then backed away ashamed, "I'm sorry." Feeling all the guilt of all the past years, everything she had caused, Buffy fell on her knees as fists pounded the sandy ground. "I am so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I was just so tired, of everything, I couldn't do it anymore." Sobbing uncontrollably, she almost didn't notice Spike pulling her up and onto her feet. Her head rested on his chest, as the vampire wrapped his arms around her and just let her cry, "I was just so tired..." Taking a breath, Buffy looked up into his eyes, "I want to go home now, Spike. Please help me."
Silently, Spike reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small dark blue stone pendant. "Do you remember what this is?" He asked Buffy while she still clung to him.
"Isn't it. Anya's vengeance demon necklace... how did you get it?"
Holding the pendant by the string, the vampire looked into it pensively and spoke slowly and thoughtfully, "Anya was the only other Scooby to survive that night. When she found out what happened she came looking for me in the cemetery. she was so different after that." Spike paused and forced himself to go on, "We took care of each other, up until the end, tried to keep the demons and ghoulies from taking over. We were just wasting our time. We needed a slayer." Spike looked down at Buffy, "We needed THE slayer. then one day Anya was reading one of Giles' old books on vengeance demons and the like. She found this spell where a vengeance demon could sacrifice itself to another. Thus transferring her power into the pendant, to be used when the other found it necessary. She died so that I would have the power to bring you back."
Buffy swallowed, she had stopped crying and was feeling her inner strength again, "How does it work?"
"Are you really sure?" Spike queried, and Buffy quietly nodded. "Just think of home." Then he crushed the pendant in his hand, releasing mists of blues, pinks, and purples. Buffy and Spike clung to each other as the mists swallowed them. Sounds and sights came flooding into Buffy's mind... everything she has tried to block out; people's voices and old photographic memories playing in her mind's eyes.
Then it felt like she was sinking, without a body to hold her up, just floating downwards in a never-ending sea of tranquility. "It feels like I'm in heaven." She thought to herself even though her concept of herself was fading by the moment as she merged with the hazy nothingness.
And then as quick as it began, she was home. Flopping onto her bed, Buffy felt whole once more. Spike was lying next to her, she realized as the room came into focus.
"Quite a ride, huh?" A smirk spread across Spike's face. Buffy said nothing, exhausted, and rested her head on his chest. "Sleep luv, get some sleep."
Just before she fell asleep, Buffy replied softly, "I'm home."
Buffy slept almost till sunset that night. Half expecting to see her other home and to hear her mother cooking her breakfast, she was slightly surprised to wake up in Sunnydale.
After taking a shower, and getting dressed in jeans and a tank top she walked downstairs, stopping in the hallway every few feet to stare at another photo on the wall, with each an old memory was dug up. They didn't hurt her anymore, and with each rock that was turned over, she felt twice as more powerful and twice as more sure of herself.
"Hey, Slayer," Spike called from the bottom of the stairs, "I was wondering when you'd and wake up."
"Can't sleep the whole day away. There's too many things to do." Buffy smiled as she walked down the steps and into the kitchen, "I'm starved. What are you cooking?" Opening a random pot, she saw some red liquid. Spike hurriedly took her hand away and shut the pot.
"You don't wanna know."
"Was that blood? You're cooking blood on my stove, in my pots. that's- that's just really gross, Spike."
"Yeah, well, I made you some of that veggie food you used to like, which is ten times worse." He grinned.
Buffy looked in the other pot, "Rice, broccoli and steamed carrots. my favorite." She grabbed a plate full and sat down at the table as Spike poured himself some weird concoction of blood, meatballs, and chicken. He sat down across from her, watching her do the normal mundane things he remembered.
"Spike, I want to visit Xander and Willow and the rest." She paused trying not to upset the atmosphere, "Do you know where they were buried?"
"Hanover Cemetery, Row 45. near that big white angel statue."
"Would you take me there? I don't want to go alone."
Spike nodded, and they went on with their meal.
An hour later, Buffy wearing black corduroy pants, a black peasant top, and a necklace Xander had given to her for Christmas a few years ago. Sitting on the sofa in the living room, she waited for Spike to finish getting dressed. After a few moments, he emerged from the basement, which he had made into his bedroom during the past few years. He too was wearing all black.
Walking into the living room, he threw a stake to Buffy, "Remember how to use one of these?"
"Like riding a bicycle," She put her leather coat on and they were off. "The point end goes in the heart right?"
The streets of Sunnydale were a lot more decrepit then she had remembered. No humans were seen at all, Spike noted that most of them had either been killed or left the hellmouth. Shattered windows, looted shells of cars, and vacant houses filled the place she had once found so beautiful.
About twenty minutes into their walk, Buffy noticed that there were three vampires following them. She motioned to Spike, trying to appear ignorant of the danger, but when the three attacked Spike and Buffy were ready for them.
Buffy felt the Slayer skill and power returning quickly as she staked the first vampire. Spike took care of the second with equal skill. The third, though Buffy pummeled for a few minutes, and then held it up against the brick wall. Weakly it struggled against the slayer, but it was clearly on its way to being staked dead.
"You know, I could kill you." Buffy told it, "Real easily. But I won't. Wanna know why?"
The vampire shook its head no.
"Because you're going to deliver a message for me." Buffy commanded, "I want you to go to whoever runs this town now and tell them that the slayer's back in Sunnydale."
At hearing the mention of the slayer, the vampire's eyes went wide. "Anything you want. I'll go tell everyone. And our Master will know. I promise. Just please. don't kill me. Please."
Buffy punched the vampire across the face and let it drop to the floor. "Get out of here."
Though it was hurt, the vampire limped away as quick as it could, promising to honor the pact and cowering like a baby.
"Come on, Spike, I've got old friends to visit," Buffy started to walk away, while Spike was still grinning from the way Buffy had shown she was in charge again. They might just have a shot to get this town back the way it had been.
It took another five minutes to reach the cemetery and find the right area. They had all been buried next to each other, forever together.
Buffy stopped in front of Xander's grave and felt the words on the tombstone. "I miss you, my Xander-shaped friend. I know how much you loved me, and I'm so sorry I hurt you. Even while I was alive I hurt you because I could never tell you that I loved you in the way you wanted to hear. But I did love you, deeply. And I'll never forget everything you gave to me. How much humor you added to what would have been a very difficult life." She left a rose on his grave and moved on to Willow's resting spot.
"Willow. You were my best friend, and I watched you turn from a shy little schoolgirl to an in charge wiccan. I was always so proud of you, you had gotten so powerful that last year. You gave of yourself selflessly, and were always there when I needed you. You let me have what a slayer needs the most, a friend. A best friend. I love you." She left another rose near Willow's tombstone and then turned to Dawn's grave.
"Dawnie. You were the best fake little sister any monk could have given to me. I always thought you would have been a great slayer if I trained you, if I had allowed you to get more involved, but I was too afraid. Afraid of having you get hurt or killed, or having to see what I had seen. I wanted to protect you, to shield you from this world, and I ending up killing you instead." Buffy paused as she started crying, "And now I miss you. I miss you so much." She placed one of her necklaces, the one that Dawn had always 'borrowed' at her sister's grave. "You liked it so much, I thought you should have it."
Anya was buried a few feet away from Dawn. "Anya, Spike told me how much you sacrificed to bring me home. I can't thank you enough. It's painful here, but the fact is this is where I belong. I belong amongst my friends, remembering them the way they were and not in some world where they don't even exist. I hope you met up with Xander on the other side and are very happy together, I always thought you two would make it." Buffy placed what was left of the vengeance pendant Spike had crushed open on Anya's grave. "Thank you for helping bring me home."
She stood and stared at the graves for a moment, wiping away a few tears. "Good-bye," she whispered and then rejoined Spike. Buffy laced her arm through his, and they started to walk home.
Standing together, by their graves, invisible to the mortal world, were Xander, Willow, Dawn, and Anya. Nothing more than ghosts, they had no way to tell Buffy how much they still cared for her, and that they forgave her. Still Xander whispered, "Take care of her, for me. For us."
The vampire stopped, senses tingling, and looked over his shoulder. A warm summer breeze floated past Spike and Buffy. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, Spike just looked down at Buffy and smiled. They continued walking, as he silently replied to the whispering wind, "Forever."
THE END
Hopefully that ending didn't suck. It's always hard to pick up a story that I wrote months before. But a writing coach of mine said that I should use notes when writing long stories so I can jump back in more easily. So I'll save that idea for the next story I write.
BIG Thanks to Charisma1525 for her diligence in emailing me to get me to finish the story. I thought about stopping it a few times, but then I thought of Charisma and how I had promised to finish it for her and yay! Now I'm done.
Also thanks to everyone else who had kind words and encouragement to share. Couldn't have done it without you all.
*wonders if anyone is still reading this fic*
And now on to the conclusion:
The light on the streets was dim as Buffy traced Spike's steps. The vampire was moving too quickly to be followed, but she couldn't stop. He had become the only truth in this new world, and stopping for even a second would leave her stranded and lost forever.
Every so often she would find a broken twig, or pick up the scent of the dead. Spike was close, every fiber of her being tingled, her natural slayer instincts kicked in even though they had not been used for years. It was still a part of her, still inside her. She was the slayer, and Spike was her prey.
The slayer ran through the night, just until it was nearly dawn. By the time Buffy spotted him again it was at the edge of the shores of Dockweiler Beach. From the dunes, she watched him silently, breathing slowly and taking the sight of him in.
"Target spotted, initiate contact," The slayer muttered to herself, though she couldn't bring herself to go down to him. To talk to the one person who could make sense of the world. What right did she have to invade his territory anymore, after making it clear she wanted nothing to do with him or the world she had left behind?
Standing sentient, from her vantage point high on the dunes, she stared at him until, after noticing someone watching him, Spike turned around and looked up towards where she stood. Their eyes met. Even from far away, Buffy could feel the heat of his stare. It unnerved her.
With an angel's grace, she followed the footsteps he had laid in the sand when he had first arrived at the shore. Slowly but surely, the slayer moved until she stood near him. "Spike... I..." Spike's eyes met hers once more, and she realized how close they were standing. Feeling lost in his ocean blue eyes, Buffy quickly glanced away, and for the first time noticed how close the sun was to rising.
"You said you wanted to end it Slayer, well, this is the end. Come to watch me burst into flames then. Would that make you happy?"
Turning back towards him, in a low voice she began, "I know you're mad but."
"Damn right, I'm mad." He shouted at her, "Do you have any idea how hard it was to get to you? Can you possibly understand what I risked in coming to what you are so eager to call 'home'?!" Pausing, to reign in his anger, voice breaking all the while, "I just wanted to feel you again. To touch you. the old you. I wanted what you helped destroy." He paused for a moment, thinking of the past, "You know, I don't understand it, but I even miss the others. The witches, niblet . even that bleeding nancy boy Xander."
Buffy tried to touch him, but the vampire pulled away and faced out to the horizon. The sun's rays were bouncing along the waters; soon it would be too late. Hurrying to find a way to convince Spike to get to shelter, Buffy started, "I want to go home with you."
"Why?" He turned back towards her with narrow eyes, "Because everything in this world is falling apart as much as the last one? You're just running away again, Buffy. It's all you ever do."
The slayer slapped him across the face, harshly, but then backed away ashamed, "I'm sorry." Feeling all the guilt of all the past years, everything she had caused, Buffy fell on her knees as fists pounded the sandy ground. "I am so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I was just so tired, of everything, I couldn't do it anymore." Sobbing uncontrollably, she almost didn't notice Spike pulling her up and onto her feet. Her head rested on his chest, as the vampire wrapped his arms around her and just let her cry, "I was just so tired..." Taking a breath, Buffy looked up into his eyes, "I want to go home now, Spike. Please help me."
Silently, Spike reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small dark blue stone pendant. "Do you remember what this is?" He asked Buffy while she still clung to him.
"Isn't it. Anya's vengeance demon necklace... how did you get it?"
Holding the pendant by the string, the vampire looked into it pensively and spoke slowly and thoughtfully, "Anya was the only other Scooby to survive that night. When she found out what happened she came looking for me in the cemetery. she was so different after that." Spike paused and forced himself to go on, "We took care of each other, up until the end, tried to keep the demons and ghoulies from taking over. We were just wasting our time. We needed a slayer." Spike looked down at Buffy, "We needed THE slayer. then one day Anya was reading one of Giles' old books on vengeance demons and the like. She found this spell where a vengeance demon could sacrifice itself to another. Thus transferring her power into the pendant, to be used when the other found it necessary. She died so that I would have the power to bring you back."
Buffy swallowed, she had stopped crying and was feeling her inner strength again, "How does it work?"
"Are you really sure?" Spike queried, and Buffy quietly nodded. "Just think of home." Then he crushed the pendant in his hand, releasing mists of blues, pinks, and purples. Buffy and Spike clung to each other as the mists swallowed them. Sounds and sights came flooding into Buffy's mind... everything she has tried to block out; people's voices and old photographic memories playing in her mind's eyes.
Then it felt like she was sinking, without a body to hold her up, just floating downwards in a never-ending sea of tranquility. "It feels like I'm in heaven." She thought to herself even though her concept of herself was fading by the moment as she merged with the hazy nothingness.
And then as quick as it began, she was home. Flopping onto her bed, Buffy felt whole once more. Spike was lying next to her, she realized as the room came into focus.
"Quite a ride, huh?" A smirk spread across Spike's face. Buffy said nothing, exhausted, and rested her head on his chest. "Sleep luv, get some sleep."
Just before she fell asleep, Buffy replied softly, "I'm home."
Buffy slept almost till sunset that night. Half expecting to see her other home and to hear her mother cooking her breakfast, she was slightly surprised to wake up in Sunnydale.
After taking a shower, and getting dressed in jeans and a tank top she walked downstairs, stopping in the hallway every few feet to stare at another photo on the wall, with each an old memory was dug up. They didn't hurt her anymore, and with each rock that was turned over, she felt twice as more powerful and twice as more sure of herself.
"Hey, Slayer," Spike called from the bottom of the stairs, "I was wondering when you'd and wake up."
"Can't sleep the whole day away. There's too many things to do." Buffy smiled as she walked down the steps and into the kitchen, "I'm starved. What are you cooking?" Opening a random pot, she saw some red liquid. Spike hurriedly took her hand away and shut the pot.
"You don't wanna know."
"Was that blood? You're cooking blood on my stove, in my pots. that's- that's just really gross, Spike."
"Yeah, well, I made you some of that veggie food you used to like, which is ten times worse." He grinned.
Buffy looked in the other pot, "Rice, broccoli and steamed carrots. my favorite." She grabbed a plate full and sat down at the table as Spike poured himself some weird concoction of blood, meatballs, and chicken. He sat down across from her, watching her do the normal mundane things he remembered.
"Spike, I want to visit Xander and Willow and the rest." She paused trying not to upset the atmosphere, "Do you know where they were buried?"
"Hanover Cemetery, Row 45. near that big white angel statue."
"Would you take me there? I don't want to go alone."
Spike nodded, and they went on with their meal.
An hour later, Buffy wearing black corduroy pants, a black peasant top, and a necklace Xander had given to her for Christmas a few years ago. Sitting on the sofa in the living room, she waited for Spike to finish getting dressed. After a few moments, he emerged from the basement, which he had made into his bedroom during the past few years. He too was wearing all black.
Walking into the living room, he threw a stake to Buffy, "Remember how to use one of these?"
"Like riding a bicycle," She put her leather coat on and they were off. "The point end goes in the heart right?"
The streets of Sunnydale were a lot more decrepit then she had remembered. No humans were seen at all, Spike noted that most of them had either been killed or left the hellmouth. Shattered windows, looted shells of cars, and vacant houses filled the place she had once found so beautiful.
About twenty minutes into their walk, Buffy noticed that there were three vampires following them. She motioned to Spike, trying to appear ignorant of the danger, but when the three attacked Spike and Buffy were ready for them.
Buffy felt the Slayer skill and power returning quickly as she staked the first vampire. Spike took care of the second with equal skill. The third, though Buffy pummeled for a few minutes, and then held it up against the brick wall. Weakly it struggled against the slayer, but it was clearly on its way to being staked dead.
"You know, I could kill you." Buffy told it, "Real easily. But I won't. Wanna know why?"
The vampire shook its head no.
"Because you're going to deliver a message for me." Buffy commanded, "I want you to go to whoever runs this town now and tell them that the slayer's back in Sunnydale."
At hearing the mention of the slayer, the vampire's eyes went wide. "Anything you want. I'll go tell everyone. And our Master will know. I promise. Just please. don't kill me. Please."
Buffy punched the vampire across the face and let it drop to the floor. "Get out of here."
Though it was hurt, the vampire limped away as quick as it could, promising to honor the pact and cowering like a baby.
"Come on, Spike, I've got old friends to visit," Buffy started to walk away, while Spike was still grinning from the way Buffy had shown she was in charge again. They might just have a shot to get this town back the way it had been.
It took another five minutes to reach the cemetery and find the right area. They had all been buried next to each other, forever together.
Buffy stopped in front of Xander's grave and felt the words on the tombstone. "I miss you, my Xander-shaped friend. I know how much you loved me, and I'm so sorry I hurt you. Even while I was alive I hurt you because I could never tell you that I loved you in the way you wanted to hear. But I did love you, deeply. And I'll never forget everything you gave to me. How much humor you added to what would have been a very difficult life." She left a rose on his grave and moved on to Willow's resting spot.
"Willow. You were my best friend, and I watched you turn from a shy little schoolgirl to an in charge wiccan. I was always so proud of you, you had gotten so powerful that last year. You gave of yourself selflessly, and were always there when I needed you. You let me have what a slayer needs the most, a friend. A best friend. I love you." She left another rose near Willow's tombstone and then turned to Dawn's grave.
"Dawnie. You were the best fake little sister any monk could have given to me. I always thought you would have been a great slayer if I trained you, if I had allowed you to get more involved, but I was too afraid. Afraid of having you get hurt or killed, or having to see what I had seen. I wanted to protect you, to shield you from this world, and I ending up killing you instead." Buffy paused as she started crying, "And now I miss you. I miss you so much." She placed one of her necklaces, the one that Dawn had always 'borrowed' at her sister's grave. "You liked it so much, I thought you should have it."
Anya was buried a few feet away from Dawn. "Anya, Spike told me how much you sacrificed to bring me home. I can't thank you enough. It's painful here, but the fact is this is where I belong. I belong amongst my friends, remembering them the way they were and not in some world where they don't even exist. I hope you met up with Xander on the other side and are very happy together, I always thought you two would make it." Buffy placed what was left of the vengeance pendant Spike had crushed open on Anya's grave. "Thank you for helping bring me home."
She stood and stared at the graves for a moment, wiping away a few tears. "Good-bye," she whispered and then rejoined Spike. Buffy laced her arm through his, and they started to walk home.
Standing together, by their graves, invisible to the mortal world, were Xander, Willow, Dawn, and Anya. Nothing more than ghosts, they had no way to tell Buffy how much they still cared for her, and that they forgave her. Still Xander whispered, "Take care of her, for me. For us."
The vampire stopped, senses tingling, and looked over his shoulder. A warm summer breeze floated past Spike and Buffy. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, Spike just looked down at Buffy and smiled. They continued walking, as he silently replied to the whispering wind, "Forever."
THE END
Hopefully that ending didn't suck. It's always hard to pick up a story that I wrote months before. But a writing coach of mine said that I should use notes when writing long stories so I can jump back in more easily. So I'll save that idea for the next story I write.
BIG Thanks to Charisma1525 for her diligence in emailing me to get me to finish the story. I thought about stopping it a few times, but then I thought of Charisma and how I had promised to finish it for her and yay! Now I'm done.
Also thanks to everyone else who had kind words and encouragement to share. Couldn't have done it without you all.