A/N: A final epilogue to come.
May 5, 2012 (Kitty Diary)
They said Mommy died in a car accident.
Right after everyone left Aunt Cordy and Uncle Angel came by and dropped Jesse off, then left in a rush.
No one came home Saturday night. Uncle Xander told me stories of Mommy when she was in school, and they were mostly funny.
If I actually knew what he was talking about, or if anyone ever decided to explain. From what I could understand, Uncle Xander had a bad history of girlfriends.
When I got worried and asked about Mommy and Daddy and everybody, Uncle Xander said not to worry, that everyone has gotten through stuff like this before, and that everyone has survived worse. Then when I asked him where everyone went and why Mommy's eyes were yellow, Uncle Xander started babbling. He said something about how everyone was going to go find an old friend they haven't seen for a while, and that they might be a while.
Then he tucked me in.
And I got a really scary dream.
The Sunnydale High School. There it is, all gloomy-looking and empty. Except for the red light glowing around it.
Mommy walks towards it, her face still blank. Her eyes still golden.
Two cars shriek to sudden stops and people get out and slam their doors. Daddy, Aunt Dawnie, Aunt Willow, and Uncle Rupert. Uncle Angel and Aunt Cordy.
Aunt Anya was already there.
"Buffy, don't go in there alone," she says. "If Willow isn't with you when the Hellmouth opens, the only way to close it again would be—"
Mommy waves a hand at her without a glance and Aunt Anya suddenly flies backwards a long way and crashes into a distant tree. Poor Aunt Anya.
Mommy, why are you hurting Aunt Anya? Is this because she tried to "have sex" with Daddy, whatever that means? Please Mommy, Daddy said no.
"Buffy!"
"Slayer, luv, stop!"
"Buffy, stop!"
"Please, Buffy!"
Mommy doesn't give them a backward glance. She vanishes into the building, and everyone tears in after her.
There are bad men here, men in black hoods and what looked like dresses. I almost laugh until I see that they have no eyes. And they have sharp, sharp knives. They start to attack Mommy.
Mommy raises her hands and again, several of those eye-less men crash into walls. She keeps walking, but more black figures replace the ones Mommy hurt, so that no one can follow.
Uncle Rupert twists away from a knife that was aimed at him and instead takes out what looks like a bow and shoots the man in the head. He doesn't see the man behind him with the big stick. Duck!
Uncle Rupert goes down. You'll be okay, won't you, Uncle Rupert?
Aunt Cordy is glowing white. She grabs several of those men, and they suddenly go to sleep.
Uncle Angel is even scarier. His face is twisted and he looks like one of those monsters Mommy always kills in my dreams. He has an ax and is cutting the heads off of the men in black dresses. Eww! And he keeps on getting punched by the men, but that doesn't slow him down.
Aunt Dawnie has a sword and she's fighting almost as good as Mommy, stabbing and cutting parts off of the bad people. She has a cut on her arm and it's bleeding! Don't be hurt, Aunt Dawnie!
This is all scary, but Aunt Willow and Daddy are the scariest. Her eyes are black and she's talking in funny words again, and there's a purple glow and a breeze around her, blowing around the room. And Daddy, Daddy looks like Uncle Angel too, but he doesn't have a weapon. He's snarling and growling, jumping all over those creepy men and biting and tearing as well as punching and kicking like all the rest. But then those men in black dresses keep on poking Daddy with their knives and he bleeds all over the place. I hope you'll be okay, Daddy. You still have to get Mommy, remember?
Then a weird thing happened. Well, weirder. Daddy stops fighting for a moment, and stares right where I was.
"Bloody…Angie?" Daddy's face changes back to normal and he continues to stare.
Daddy, there's one behind you!
Then he blinks and moves an inch to the left, and the man with the knife trips. Daddy grabs his neck and twists. Eww, gross!
"Don't worry, I'll get Buffy." He turns to Aunt Willow. "Red, are you ready?"
Aunt Willow nods, her eyes as black as the night. "Repulso!"
Suddenly, all the scary men in the black dresses were against the wall. Everyone starts running down the way Mommy went, all but Aunt Cordy, who stays behind to make sure Uncle Giles was okay. Thanks, Aunt Cordy.
She suddenly frowns and looks around. "What?"
I leave her and follow Aunt Willow, Daddy, Uncle Angel, and Aunt Dawnie. They run through the halls, following Aunt Willow. The breeze that she makes gets all the dust fly everywhere. So much dust.
There! A broken-down office wall. Mommy's right there, fighting better than I've ever seen before. There are many monsters, even scarier than the ones she usually fights. Their faces look almost like Daddy and Uncle Angel's, but even worse.
Much uglier and scarier.
As everyone gets there, Mommy tears the head off of the monster she was fighting. Gross! When she lets it drop, both the head and body turn to dust.
Oh. That's where all the dust came from.
Next to the wall still remaining is Aunt Faith. She's tied up and she looks really mad. Standing directly in the middle of what looks like the office is a pale man with a face like a bat. He looks almost like those scary monsters Mommy was turning to dust, except less scary and more stupid. He's chanting as a crack slowly opens up in the middle of the carpet on the floor. The ground is shaking.
"Buffy, the Hellmouth!" Aunt Faith is saying. But Mommy doesn't really pay much attention. She continues to fight.
Uncle Angel keeps on getting beat up by the scary monsters. Even though I didn't really like him, I don't want him to get hurt.
Daddy and Aunt Dawnie are fighting one together. As Daddy distracts him, Aunt Dawnie cuts his head off. Eww.
Aunt Willow is chanting just like the bat-faced guy inside the office. The ground stops shaking. The bat-faced man looks annoyed, then suddenly turns into a pretty lady with curly hair in a red dress. She whistles and about four of the monsters go after Aunt Willow. Aunt Willow stops chanting starts to fight them off.
Aunt Willow, watch out!
Too late, she gets whacked hard on the head.
The pretty lady in the red dress smiles and turns back into the bat-faced man. He starts chanting again and the ground keeps on opening up. The entire place shakes.
"Nibblet, get Faith."
Aunt Dawnie squeals as she ducks a punch and races for Aunt Faith. She hacks apart the ropes and they run back, away from the quickly crumbling walls. A large chunk of the roof falls right after they ran, cutting them off from the fight.
"Buffy, let's go!" Uncle Angel yells, turning away from the fight. "We have Faith." When he turns back, Uncle Angel also got knocked out.
Now there are only three monsters. Mommy gets two and Daddy's getting beaten up by the last one. Mommy steps up really calmly and tears his head off.
Okay then, no more monsters. Come home now, please.
Mommy starts back toward the broken-down office. There's an earthquake, it's not safe!
Daddy grabs Mommy. "Buffy!"
Mommy stares back at him as his face changes. Her face changes, too. Her eyes are hazel again.
The ground shakes again and Mommy's knees buckle and she grabs onto Daddy before she can fall.
"Spike, what's going on?"
Daddy smiles faintly. "The First, luv. We got Faith back."
Another big shake. Some walls are collapsing. The roof is falling in. Mommy is wrapped up in Daddy and Daddy's long coat, her face on his chest. She looks up again when the ground stills for a moment. She sees the bat-faced man and pales, pushing herself away from Daddy.
"Oh God. The Hellmouth." She turns back again, her eyes wide. "The others. Dawn, Giles, Cordy? Oh God, Willow, Angel." She sees them, still asleep, luckily not hit by anything falling. "Get them out of here, Spike. I'm counting on you. Take care of Angie and Dawn."
Mommy turns and walks toward the office again. Daddy grabs her again, stopping her.
"Buffy, don't." Mommy turns back. She looks so hesitant. Stay with Daddy, Mommy. Take Uncle Angel and run.
The bat-faced man laughs. "So, Slayer. I still haven't wiped out your pathetic line. Well, not yet." The ground rumbles again. "But that doesn't really matter, does it? Once this Hellmouth opens, boy it's gonna blow. And then it's beddie-bye." He suddenly changes, turns into the woman I knew as Grandma Joyce. "What are you going to do, Buffy?"
Mommy's face hardens. "You're not my mother."
Grandma Joyce looks exasperated. "So rude, Buffy. Didn't I teach you your manners?"
Mommy narrows her eyes. "Your Hellmouth isn't going to open. Never again."
Grandma Joyce smiles. "Oh, but it already did."
From the hole in the carpet, a monster rises. It's grayish-pink, bigger than the office itself as it comes up. It has three heads!
From behind, people are coming, Aunt Cordy and Uncle Rupert. Aunt Willow is awake, and already chanting under her breath. Aunt Cordy and Uncle Rupert join her. The really big monster shrieks and sinks back into the hole. The tremors stop.
But the hole is still there.
"Buffy, it's not closing!" Aunt Willow yells. "I can't hold it much longer."
Mommy nods, stares Grandma Joyce in the eyes. "There can't be two Slayers," she begins.
"Buffy, please!" Daddy grabs her again, but this time Mommy throws him off. He hits a wall, and a piece of rubble falls on him. Ouch! Are you okay, Daddy?
"Is that it?" she asks Grandma Joyce. "More than one and you get a grudge."
Grandma Joyce smiles again. "Always the bright one, huh? Honey, no wonder you got expelled so often." Expelled? Mommy?
Mommy ignores her comment. "So why the Hellmouth? What, you also want to destroy the world?"
Grandma Joyce shrugged. "Why not? At least that way the Slayer line gets destroyed, no matter what."
"Boy, you really hate Slayers."
Grandma Joyce suddenly turns into Daddy. "I'm not one for quitting. Never was. So, luv, the choice is yours. I can wipe out your little Slayer line or I can open the Hellmouth and…well, frankly, release Hell on earth. Your choice, Slayer."
Mommy gazes at him coolly, with a raised eyebrow. "How about a compromise?"
That's when Uncle Xander woke me up. There was an earthquake and we had to go down to the basement. He told me and Jesse that everything was all right, but he sounded really worried and kept glancing out the window.
Jesse and I climbed onto Daddy's bed in the basement, where he usually went during the day. Funny, I never noticed the chains on the wall right next to it before.
I didn't tell either of them my dream.
We stayed there until 3 AM. Then the earthquake suddenly stopped and Uncle Xander took us back upstairs to sleep.
When I next woke up, Aunt Dawnie was sitting nearby, her arm bandaged and in a sling. She had a cut on her face and her skin was dirty and dusty. And her eyes were red and still teary.
I asked her what was wrong and where were Mommy and Daddy?
Aunt Dawnie started crying again.
That's when Aunt Willow came in. She told me that there was an accident. Mommy got in a car accident.
And the hospital tried to save her but they couldn't do anything about it.
I said she was lying. She had to be! Mommy would never leave me and Daddy and Aunt Dawnie. She wouldn't.
I asked Aunt Dawnie if Aunt Willow was lying, but Aunt Dawnie only cried harder.
That's when I knew it was true. Mommy was gone.