I'm bbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacccccccckkkk! Whoo-hoo! Wow. It's been a pretty long time; many apologies! And now my good friends! We have the ch. Thank you's!

Kasha/Crazy-Dru: Thanks for your reviews and always keep second-guessing me! It keeps me on my toes.

Tariq: Thanks for the reviews! Always very inspiring for me! And once I am done with more chapters I will start working on the ideas you gave me.

Dezi: Don't worry, there will be no killing Buffy..unless people stop reviewing. ::insert evil chuckle here; points to random point around the room::

SaffronAngel: Thanks for stating the comment about keeping the story close to the timeline. I try my hardest to stay close to the show's ways of doing things. I thank you for the response about the flames too! Much appreciated.

Dezra Lothiual: Thanx for the inspiration! Now get your butt moving and start on finishing LOTR2! Peaaaaaaaase?

Crysta: Thanx for reviewing! I would review yours but I get halfway through the chapters and then I fall asleep! Great writing but you need to make the chapters SHORTER! A strange request for any author but..

Kat: I'm especially glad that you don't write flames. Flames suck. Grr. And see! I finally updated! Woot.

TK: Thanks for reviewing!

AnOnYmOuS: Thanks for supporting me and being the mushy-voice-of-reason even when you didn't want to be!

Lily Folsome: Thanks for reading!

Shadid: Thanks for reviewing!

Megan: Dude, you're awesome!

Isabellafaerie: Thanks for the review!

(notice they get shorter as I go on?)

Nadia: Aww, it's always nice to see that my story actually has some sort of impact! Thanks!

Kellyanne: Thanks so very much asylum-buddy!

Dan: Um..as your little sister, thanks..a lot.

Daughter of Death: Thanks for the review!

Disclaimer: I wish, I wish...I hadn't killed that fish. He he he. Srry, wanted to say that. Don't own 'um, so don't sue.

A/N: I also just wanted to mention that you people should really listen to the song My Immortal by Evanescence cause it is one of the best I've heard in a long time. KK. On to the story. Oh yeah, Happy Easter and happy vacation.

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Chapter 10: Windows to the soul
Buffy walked quietly on a sandy beach as the warm glow of the setting sun faded behind night's dark curtain. As a gentle pink faded into orange and then to a fiery red, she stood there, watching nature at its best. A gentle wind caught at her skirt and danced across her face. There was a serene peace that she hadn't felt since she had come back from heaven. She spotted two ducks with their tiny ducklings trailing behind them swim gently in the calm ocean. The ocean.

It was so very beautiful and at the same time so very deadly. It could be whipped into a screaming frenzy or pull a desperate creature into it's murky depths. She walked along the surf and let the ocean's cool water slide over her feet. The sky kept on changing. The deep red turning into a velvet purple and then finally into a dark blue. Just as the first stars came out a pair of arms wrapped around her middle and she smiled slightly.

"You missed the sunset." She turned to meet a pair of dark chocolate eyes. Even though there weren't many of them at the moment, the emotions in them were so powerful that Buffy felt as though she would be lost in their depths like falling into the ocean's depths. Never to be set free, but almost complacent to be enslaved.

They had the power to mesmerize and to be mesmerized. They both took in emotion and emitted their own. It was easy to see how eyes were very much the windows to the soul. As far as she could see, this soul in front of her was very beautiful, very passionate, and not just in lust. No, passion could be for anything. For love, obsession, or even just in a normal everyday thing. Like raising children, working, or saving the world.

Right now, that very passionate soul, with it's very passionate eyes, was telling her how much it loved her and cared about her, and wanted her to be happy. Sometimes when she woke up she was surprised that anyone could even look at her. Someone who had been rejected from heaven. It still hurt to be reminded of the calm she had felt compared to this harsh world. The complete peace she had felt with everything was ripped away, leaving her open and bleeding.

Fortunately, the pain had receded to a dull ache and even that was soon leaving because of this wonderful man standing beside her. She suddenly was very aware that while she might have felt peace she didn't think she had felt heaven. Heaven was here. With the one she loved. The one who was now speaking.

"I don't need to see it."

"It was very beautiful."

"You're very beautiful. If I need something beautiful to look at I only have to look at you."

She briefly wondered how he always knew exactly what to say, exactly what she needed to hear. He probably saw her soul too. In her eyes, her windows. She questioned what someone would see there. Would they see a warrior that had faced the darkness and fought as hard as she could? Would they see a broken girl who just wanted to be loved? Or maybe they would see an angel.

A fallen angel that had been struck down one to many times, and was struggling to get to her knees. Who had faced horrors, life, and too much pain and was silently suffering. Who couldn't face the world without wondering what pain it was going to slice her with next. Wondering when it would let her rest.

The Angel standing next to her couldn't know what she was thinking, but saw the hurt in her eyes and his heart silently broke. It broke for this young woman who, in many ways, was still a child that had been forced to take off the veil of innocence far to early in life. He silently cried out of the unjust treatment on this innocent soul.

He wondered why a world that strived for peace would always destroy the innocent one's first. Children starved on the side of streets. Babies were killed before even taking their first breaths. Toddlers were killed by drunk drivers or abusive parents. It was a wonder that the world was even able to thrive at all.

He thought with trepidation of the inevitable fate that this world would hold. It would definitely destroy itself before the end. Resources were being destroyed, land blown up, pollution choking the air. Wars were being waged, people killed, lives destroyed, and all in the name of peace. Through violence, there is only more violence.

This knowledge was probably one of the reasons why he became the Scourge of Europe in the first place. In his own twisted way he was saving innocents before they were destroyed by the world and its cruelty. Now he knew better. He knew that no matter how it happened, people faced the world everyday and it made them stronger. Sometimes though, the world was a bit too difficult to deal with. It's probably why Slayers have somewhat of a death wish. After a while, it just becomes too much. He himself had almost ended it all.

He would have succeeded too, if it weren't for a tiny blonde angel that became his savior. She had pulled him back from the tantalizing darkness and into the safety of the light. Sometimes the light was bright and painful, but it could be warm and comforting. He didn't think that she would ever know just how grateful he truly was. She had saved him in every way possible. She had also been his damnation, but to her, so had he. He had kept her from the light she deserved to be in. From the light that was so very much a part of her. That's why he had left, but now that he could walk in the light it didn't matter anymore. Now, he could walk beside her. Hand in hand.

He slipped his hand into his tiny savior's hand and he pulled her away from the night, from the darkness. Then slowly, and very surely, they walked. They walked throughout the whole night, throughout the harshness of the world, through the end of innocence, through the murky depths. Even when their feet were killing them, and they didn't see the point in going on anymore, they held up their heads and kept on walking. When one slipped or stumbled, the other held them up from falling. They walked until the sky slipped from night's curtain and from blues and purples to golds and yellows.

Until the sun's first rays broke the horizon and they started back to their home. It was as they were heading back when it suddenly occurred to them both that the sunrise was more beautiful then the sun set. That the beginning of life and of a birth of a new day was more precious then the end of world and the death of the day. They also thought of how easy their journey had seemed now that it was so worth it. With a new determination, and a new passion, they walked through life, and the new day, together, as one.

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THIS IS NOT OVER YET!!!! Do not despair!

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Tell me what you think! This chapter didn't really have a large purpose except show what was going on through the heads of the character at the moment. I hope you enjoyed! ~Crystal