EPILOGUE

The desert for the final time, twisted trees casting intricate shadows upon the dusty earth. The First sits upon the cliff's edge, looking towards the sunset, stiff, unmoving. Rem knows she will not speak this time.

She hears a grunt and the singular thud as flesh meets ground. She turns towards the noise and spies two figures under the shadow of the mighty stone. One is small, slight, a flash of sunlight in shadow, clad in white.

Slayer.

The other is not tall but muscular under black and red, hair the color of bleached bone, eyes cool as sky blue. She wants to weep at the sight of him, this man who is not a man, who looks so much like her boy, who could be her boy one day.

Vampire.

She walks towards them, measured steps even on sinking sand. The combatants take no notice of her until she is right next to them, halting the forward momentum of the Slayer's stake as it is about to plunge into her enemy's heart. The two women stare at each other for a moment, amber eyes to green, before green looks away and releases her hold on the stake. Rem turns to the vampire, looks at him with a Slayer's senses and sees only haunted beauty. She forgives him.

"William." Rem names him, weary but not unkind. "There are matters to discuss."

He nods and oh, for a moment he is Knives, grown up and cruel. Yet the boy is also there, hidden deep, frightened still of the world, smiling at her shyly and obeying her orders without question. She watches him leave until he is no more than a speck on the red horizon. The sun, she notices, has not moved since she arrived.

She once more meets the eyes of her sister in blood and bond. The blonde girl is much younger than she is, but the power in her small frame is nearly tangible in the air around them. Rem knows of others who have had this gift, names of myth and legend, called Artemis and Kali and Morgana by civilizations long dead. This girl is not one of those but her name is close at hand all the same.

"Buffy."

Buffy tilts her head to the side, squinting, lines smoothing away as recognition dawns. "Rem."

In another time and place, Rem would be surprised by this acknowledgement from a woman long dead, but here, under the watch of the First, this comes as no surprise at all.

Buffy continues, annoyed. "You took my stake."

Rem looks down at the wooden shaft in her hand. "You would have killed him."

"He's a vampire. It's what we're supposed to do."

"So they say."

"So it is. And I kinda want my weapon back."

"To kill him?"

Buffy rolls her eyes and looks at Rem as if she were a petulant child. "Well, duh."

"Then I think I'll keep it instead."

"I could just go get another one," Buffy points out. "Not exactly hard to find, even in the middle of nowhere."

"Well, I'll just have to take it away again."

Buffy places her hands on her hips, angry, speaking with contempt. "You don't know anything about being a Slayer."

Rem frowns and stares at the ground, shamed in front of this small, slight girl who stands barely to her shoulder, the predecessor that has been so highly praised and loved. She thinks of the First sitting still above them, the eyes of obsidian that watch but do not tell. It comes to her then, something that has always been inside yet owns no piece of her

"In a desert, I came upon a well. I drank from it until it ran dry and my thirst was quenched. But the desert lasted forever and I had no water left." Her voice hardens, resolved with truth. "I am not a well. I am a desert. And I have no need for water."

Buffy glares at her. "Deserts are hard and dry."

"Yet they survive. And so will we and so it continues." Rem's voice but not her words as the *more* speaks through, around, over, with her. "The ticket to the future is always open."

"But we already have a destiny."

"And whether or not we accept it changes it," Not-Quite-Rem says. She looks towards the setting sun. It has begun to move. "I love and am loved. I accept that. I embrace it."

"Love is pain." Harsh, cold words from such a warm, powerful girl.

Not-Quite-Rem only looks at her sadly and hands her the stake. "Then this is all that is left. Turned toward you or away, it doesn't matter anymore."

Buffy turns the stake over in her hands, examining it, possibly wondering if Rem has bewitched it, turned it against her in some way. She appears confused. "You can't save them all."

"I can try."

"Or die in the process."

"Maybe." Rem smiles, bright, brilliant and it's all her. "Or maybe I'll live."

Rem turns her back on the golden girl, too blinded by her own light to see that she is no longer in the dark, and walks towards the sunset, the last rays splashing the sky with a rainbow of pinks and blues and golds. It will be, she thinks, a lovely evening.

She doesn't look back.

FIN

***************


WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT:

Acknowledgements, Thanks, and Assorted Author Ramblings

Botany.com and Occultopedia.com provided great assistance in the research portion of this piece. Credit is also due Cadence, who was the first person (or at least the first I know of) to translate Rem's name from Latin to English. And she was right – there's a significance there that's tough to ignore.

In Part One, the bedtime story is the last line of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

The Kakos Daimon – or the Cacodemon in its Anglicized form – is a real mythological figure. According to Roman and Babylonian lore, every man is born with two spirits, one good (the agthodemon), one evil (the cacodemon). They act in the same metaphorical capacity as the devils and angels that sit on your shoulder in the cartoons and in fact when the cacodemon was absorbed into Christian mythology, it actually did become a fallen angel, trapped between heaven and hell, forever tempting man.

Thanks to my reviewers: Gochan, Genjo, Grey, nick wolf, and silver tears. I'm glad you all have made it this far.

Thanks to Jaina for once again betaing and pointing out that even in space, plot holes do exist.

There always seemed to be a lot going in this story. In some ways, it felt like I was working with entirely original characters as the SEEDS crew only appeared in one episode of the anime series and never got any particular development. There were questions that needed answering, like what the heck did Rem actually *do* on the ship other than act really sweet and be something for Vash to angst over later on? What did any of the crew do for that matter? And why exactly was it that they all seemed to go collectively insane in episode 17?

Some of the characters were more demanding than others. Steve was still a major jerk, but Mary had a wicked sense of humor and Rowan, the little twitch monkey, was surprisingly vocal about getting proper screen time. Joey was in absentia but since that seemed to be a major failing of his overall (there were only seven people on the ship – how could he *not* know what was going on?) this came as no surprise to me. And Rem – well, Rem was Rem. This was her story and she seemed to enjoy the ride.

(Side note: since his soul's currently gone, Angelus didn't do much beyond smirk and mock my fashion sense. I told him I wasn't writing about him anyway, so what did I care? He's been in a snit since).

I think I've grown as a writer over the course of this tale and feel I've definitely improved since beginning this series with "Night" in 2001 (and, yes, I'm amazed it's been that long, too). Overall, it's been an enjoyable experience.

Not to say there wasn't a good deal of frustration either. Since starting the series, I've grown less enamored of "Buffy" as a whole. Season Five had its flaws but ended well. However, Season Six was just dreadful to watch. The writing was still excellent (often brilliant) but the characters became deeply unlikable and 'Seeing Red' nearly threw me off the bandwagon all together. Season Seven seems more on track but the damage has been done. A previously fantastic show with moments of mediocrity has become an average show with moments of greatness. There's still enough to like and enough misplaced loyalty for me to continue watching, but I'll be happy to see it put to rest after this season. And that type of response really doesn't inspire the muse a whole lot.

That said, I'm taking a break for a while.

The next, and final, portion of 'Night' is stuck. I know it takes place mostly in present day (meaning, yes, Buffy and the Scoobies will play an active role), I know how it begins and I'm pretty sure how it ends, but everything in between is still deeply muddled. I'm also looking to expand my horizons a little. "Charmed," for reasons I have yet to fully understand, seems to have pissed me off enough that I want to play in that universe for a bit. "Slayers" and "Inuyasha" also seemed to have bred some plot bunnies while HBO Original Series seem intent on swallowing my life. On top of that, I have a heavier class schedule and I've rediscovered my inner bibliophile after a long period of dormancy.

Will I return to "Trigun" at all? Absolutely. 'Walking Out' still needs to be typed up, and 'One Night Stand' is starting to look sequel bound. But I need some distance, some time to recharge. This has long been my most vocal fandom and I'm glad to be here, but I've found myself getting tired of it and that means it's time to take a step back and re-examine how much longer I want to stick around. It's been good for me but even too much of a good thing can be bad.

So for those who are still reading, thanks for everything. It's been great and I've had fun.

Ending the longest author's notes ever…

-Irena