CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: RICHARD
Friday: 11am21st May 1999
California: Sunnydale
Buffy sat in the back room of the Stanton Gallery, sorting through a new shipment that had come in an hour earlier. Joyce poked her head into the room and smiled at her daughter.
"Willow and Xander wanted me to tell you that you had to be at the Graduation ceremony," Joyce said.
Buffy grinned. Her friends had been so excited about finally graduating that the final celebration was all that they had been able to talk about since after the Prom. They had been trying to talk her into going, but as yet, she hadn't been convinced. She wanted to go, but she knew that she was meant to be working.
"If you need me here, I don't mind staying," Buffy said.
Joyce shook her head. "You should go. Support your friends."
Buffy grinned and stood up. "You sure you don't mind?"
"No, go. Have a good time honey. Make sure you cheer extra loud for me," Joyce said.
Buffy nodded and gave her mom a kiss on the cheek before beginning her walk towards the school.
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"Hey, working gal," a voice called from behind her. Buffy turned and grinned at Faith.
"Hey Fai. What are you doing here?"
"Followed you," Faith replied simply. She whipped a smoke from out of the packet that lay in her jacket pocket, expertly flipping her lighter and lighting the white roll.
Buffy laughed and pointed towards the school building. "The Gang's all graduating today. Wanna come watch the ceremony?"
Faith's nose wrinkled and she shook her head.
"Maroon caps and gowns, really not my thing, y'know."
"Oh come on, it'll only go for two hours or something. We should be there supporting everyone," Buffy said.
Faith rolled her eyes but Buffy knew she had won. She snagged the cigarette from Faith's mouth and dropped it to the ground, eliciting a startled 'hey' from Faith before Buffy was hit in the arm.
"You're too nice for your own good, you do know that right?" Faith said. "Except when it comes to me and my smokes."
Buffy grinned and the two girls linked arms.
"I know."
"Modest too."
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Friday: 12noon21st May 1999
California: Sunnydale
Willow, Xander and Oz took their seats, disregarding the fact that they were meant to be in alphabetical order. They all would have been completely split up with the last names of Rosenburg, Osbourne and Harris. Willow squealed with excitement, startling the two boys.
"Look, there's Buffy and Faith!"
Buffy waved towards the trio who all waved back. Faith waved as well, with far less enthusiasm. The two girls took their seats along with the parents.
"This should be entertaining," Fiath said sarcastically.
"Don't be such a spoilsport," Buffy whispered.
Faith went to reply but Buffy shushed her as she saw a short balding man approach the podium.
"Congratulations to the class of 1999. You all proved more or less adequate," he said.
Buffy bit back a laugh. She'd heard the horror stories about Principal Snyder and could only assume that his man was he. Faith grinned at the man's complete lack of interest.
"This is a time of celebration, so: sit still and be quiet." He looked through the crowd and pointed to one of the students. "Spit out that gum."
There was a rustling sound as an embarrassed student did as requested.
"Please welcome our distinguished guest speaker: Richard Wilkins the 3rd."
A smattering of applause followed and Faith rested her head on Buffy's shoulder, pretending to snore softly. Buffy hit the girl, but didn't push her away.
"Well. What a day this is!" the Mayor said. "Special day. Today is our centennial the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale, and I know what that means to all you kids: not - a darn thing. Because today something much more important happens: today you all graduate from high school. Today all the pain, all the work, all the excitement is finally over. And what's a hundred years of history compared to that?"
Faith sat up suddenly and looked towards Buffy.
"Are you getting an evil vibe from this guy or what?" she whispered.
Buffy nodded, having had much the same thought as well.
"He seems…way too cheerful. No one should be that happy about anything," Buffy replied.
"You got weapons?"
Buffy gave her one of 'those' looks and Faith smirked, realising how dumb a question it had been. Buffy subtly pulled one of her knees into her chest and pulled out one of the two daggers she had strapped to the inside of her ankle. She handed it to Faith who pocketed it.
"It's been a long road getting here," the Mayor continued. "For you…for Sunnydale. There has been achievement, joy, good times…and now…we're at the Journey's end. And what is a journey? Is it just…distance travelled? Time spent? No. It's what happens on the way, it's the things that happen to you. At the end of the journey you're not the same. Today is about change."
Buffy's eyes narrowed. There was some serious subtext going on, but she couldn't figure out what it was about.
"Graduation doesn't just mean your circumstances change, it means you do. You ascend…to a higher level. Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing."
"Ascend?" Faith repeated. "This guy is so up to something shifty."
"Ascend…why is that familiar?" Buffy asked quietly.
"Ascend…ascending…ascension," Faith mused.
Something inside Buffy's mind clicked into place.
"Ascension! Faith! This guy's gonna try and ascend!" Buffy whispered, beginning to panic.
Something began to pass in front of the sun and Buffy looked up, startled. The other students too looked towards the sky.
"An eclipse. 'The beast will walk upon the earth and darkness will follow and day becomes night. The several races of man will be as one in their terror and destruction'," Buffy quoted. "The eclipse is standard procedure for an Ascension."
"How do you remember this crap?" Faith asked incredulously.
"You'd be amazed at the amount you learn when you're being given incentive to remember as much as you can," Buffy said.
"And so as we look back on-" the Mayor tried to continue,
but he clutched his stomach as something painful ripped through him. "On the events that brought us to this day."
Buffy and Faith exchanged glances and sat forward in their seats, grateful that they had managed to get front row seats.
"We…" he stopped again. The students in the seats began whispering to each other in concern. Buffy shot a look towards Willow, Xander and Oz, silently telling them with a head movement for them to leave. Willow touched the two boys arms and the three of them left quickly, half of the students following their example. The sun still wasn't completely covered over.
"We must all…" he stopped and yelled in pain. He gave a small smile and tried to straighten up. "It has begun. My destiny. It's a little sooner then I expected I had this whole section on civic pride…but I guess we'll just skip to the big finish!"
The sky went black and when Buffy and Faith turned to see what the rest of the audience thought of all this, they saw only empty seats.
"Well, that solves that problem," Faith said, swallowing nervously.
They both turned their attention back to the Mayor who had, in the time it had taken them to look at the empty seats, transformed from a human into a large pterodactyl like creature with four wings.
"The words 'oh shit' come to mind," Faith commented.
The both stood and positioned themselves so that they were able to defend each other if the creature struck out towards them.
"We need more weapons," Buffy said.
"You don't say," Faith replied.
They shared a glance and simultaneously turned and ran in the direction of Giles apartment to stock up and possibly get some reinforcement in the form of Buffy's Watcher.
They ran as fast as they could, Buffy having to grab Faith's hand to keep her at a faster pace than Faith was capable of. After ten minutes straight with the creature on their heels, Faith was breathless and ready to give up.
"You go on ahead B. I can't keep up," she said.
"I'm not leaving you here. It wouldn't follow me," Buffy said, not willing to run the risk of leaving Faith behind.
"You have to," Faith implored.
Buffy shook her head and took in their surroundings as the creature flew over-head. Buffy swallowed hard as the creature landed in front of them. She backed up slightly and bumped into something made from metal. She turned to look at it and grinned slightly.
"Faith, give me your lighter."
Faith looked at her dubiously. "Now's really not the time for you to take up smoking, B."
Buffy just held out her hand expectantly. "Just give it to me Fai."
Faith shrugged and dug the requested item from her pocket handing it to Buffy. The Slayer looked at her friend and grinned.
"When I tell you, I want you to run directly behind me and keep running, no matter what," Buffy instructed.
"What about you?" Faith asked.
"I'll follow. But I need you as a decoy."
Faith had no idea what Buffy had planned but nodded anyway. Buffy looked towards the creature who was standing there staring at them, waiting for them to make their move.
"Go!"
Faith took off quickly, the sudden movement making the creature begin coming towards where Buffy still stood. In a matter of seconds, Buffy had kicked the metal gas pump onto it's side, shattering the pipes and letting forth a stream of petrol. A shot of it hit the creature in the eyes and it cried out in pain.
Buffy waited for a few more seconds until the creature was nearly completely covered, along with the ground surrounding them. She lit the lighter and dropped it to the ground, racing quickly away from the leak of petrol.
In a blaze of fire, the creature squawked long and loud before it was engulfed completely by the flames. It let out one last dying howl and collapsed to the ground.
Faith looked at the Slayer, incredulity on her face.
"And they actually tested to see if you were a good Slayer. Shit girl."
Buffy could only grin and begin to walk away from the flames as a fire engine raced towards the scene.
Dunno why I really added the whole Ascension thingy…had nothing better to write, so that's why it's in there. It's AU in case you missed it, so he didn't turn into a giant snake. Mainly cos she couldn't really blow up a school that she didn't attend. ;) Quotes and stuff taken from "Graduation Parts I & II".
Thank you to the ppl who read the B/G alternates and emailed me. As to those who read and didn't reply *pouts* ;)
Toodles.
K.