Disclaimer and A/N see part one.

Memories and Dreams

"Tommy, you really are an idiot at times, aren't you?"

With a yelp, green eyes shot open, and Tommy could only stare at who
he saw.

There, before him, sitting on soft green grass, was Merton. Who was
quickly laying on the grass, a sobbing werewolf clinging to him.

"I thought you were dead. There was this awful dream, and you were
dead, and I buried you, and then I realized that you were dead, and
I wanted to die, and...."

Tommy's run-on sentence was cut off by Merton gently placing his
hand over the moving mouth. "Tommy, breath."

Taking a deep breath to please his lover, Tommy looked around. Okay,
he'd never seen this place before.

Pulling away from his lover, the taller boy looked around.

The grass was so green it was perfect. The air was clean, and they
were in a small clearing in the middle of a lot of trees. Tommy had
never seen anyplace so beautiful. Or so perfect.

It couldn't be real, even if the wolf was fooled.

A wave of sadness crashed over him, and he turned towards
Merton. "This isn't real, is it? It's a dream."

The question drew out Merton's blinding smile, the one reserved just
for when Tommy had gotten a hard question right the first time. But
there was an edge of sadness to it as well. "It is a dream, Tommy,
but not like you mean. Come here."

Wrapping his arms around his lover, Merton sighed. "I did die,
Tommy. The demons, what we saw in town, had linked me to a spell.
Something about my blood drew them, but I don't know what. The
spell, however, I did recognize. If they had finished it, the door
we saw, the black hole, would have gotten big enough that they could
have brought thousands over." Leaning forward, he let his forehead
rest against Tommy's. "So I took control of it."

"What?" Tommy had been with Merton long enough to realize that it
took a lot of power to take a spell away from someone, especially if
it had a sacrifice.

Swallowing hard, Merton looked at the ground. "I took it from them.
I changed the unwilling sacrifice to a willing sacrifice, and then I
stole all the power they had built into the spell. Then I used it to
destroy them."

The hurt on Merton's face made Tommy pull him close and rock him.
Man, Merton had barely even participated with any of the fights, and
he had killed an entire group of... things. Merton had a lot of
respect for life, and it must have really been painful for him,
mentally, to kill so many.

So Tommy held him as the Goth cried.

Finally, Merton pulled back, his eyes bloodshot. "Sorry." Shaking
himself, the dark-haired boy sat back. "Anyway, I touched something
when I stole the spell. Something dark. And when I did...." It
looked as if he was having a hard of time saying the word as Tommy
had thinking it. "When it happened, I ended up in front of some
powerful things, Tommy. The Powers That Be, pretty much the end all
and be the entire universe." Merton shivered, still awed by how much
power he had seen.

"They touched me, and they saw what I saw. Then they gave me a
choice. I could go on to receive what I would consider heaven, but I
would lose all memory of my mortal life. Or, I could come here and
possibly help save my world." His grin was wry. "Guess you can tell
which option I picked."

This, Tommy thought, was exactly like Merton. Give up everything to
help someone else. "How?"

Merton shrugged. "Though you." His eyes grew dark. "You have to make
a choice as well, Tommy." He stopped, until Tommy rumbled. "Sorry,
this is hard."

Looking down at Merton's twisting hands, Tommy had to agree. His
mate wasn't usually this nervous about anything. "Shoot."

Merton sighed. "Okay, okay. You also have two choices. One is
similar to mine. You can die, which I can tell has been going
through that little wolfy brain of yours."

That earned Tommy the Glare of Doom, which Merton only pulled out on
occasions that Tommy had been really, really stupid. Now it was
Tommy's turn to fidget, since thoughts about joining Merton had gone
through his head.

"Don't think about that anymore. Anyway, you wouldn't join me, you'd
go to your version of heaven. Don't ask me what it is, I don't
know." Knowing he was only stalling the questions, Merton continued
quickly. "Or, two, you stay and fight."

Now a slight smile crossed Merton's face, and he looked rather
pleased with himself. "There really is a Hellmouth in California,
and it really does have a Slayer there guarding it. The Watcher's
Council had a TV show made about it to throw everyone off the
trial."

Lifting a hand, he poked Tommy in the chest. "You'd have to go there
and help. What happened in Pleasantville was only the beginning.
Soon, everyone will know that the things that go bump in the night
are real, and you will be on of the front liners of our defense."

Merton laughed, a soft laugh. "Man, I'm about to steal a bit from a
book. Who would have ever thought that Merton J. Dingle would
plagiarize from a book?" He looked at Tommy. "This is a paraphrase,
alright. It's from a book called Magic's Promise, by a woman named
Mercedes Lackey. Read it sometime. It's really good.

Anyway, the main character is given a choice. He is hurt badly, and
had can pass on to the next life, or he can stay in a world that has
hurt him and fight. If he stays, there will be dark times, with loss
and pain, but his home will be saved, and people he loves will live
on. If he decided to pass on, the many more of his people would die
than if he had stayed, and the world as he knew it would be
destroyed."

With serious eyes, Merton placed his hand on Tommy's cheek. "It's an
awful lot to ask, but those are your choices. Stay, and live in
darkness, but leave behind light. Or you can leave, and leave both
darkness and light behind you, but have neither look on anything
that was once familiar to you."

Tommy paused. Why? Why did things like this happen to him? All he
had ever wanted was to be normal. And when that didn't happen, all
he wanted was to be with Merton. Why couldn't he ever have what he
wanted?

Wait a minute.

"Merton, what happens if I decide to pass on? What will you do?"

"I would stay here, and watch what happened with our world," said
Merton, sadness and fear in his voice.

"And if I stay?"

"I would be able to talk to you each time you slept, and I would
offer any assistance I could. I mean, I'm dead, not useless."

The fire he had always seen in his lover's eyes, expect for those
few terrifying seconds he had gaze into them at the end, flared up,
and Tommy knew what he would choose.

"Tell you Powers That Be they have themselves a helper."

Merton smiled. Then it turned to a leer, and he leaned
forward. "This is our own slice of paradise, you know? We can do
anything we want in here."

"Anything?" Tommy smiled as Merton launched himself at him.

If this could happen every time he slept, maybe this wouldn't be so
bad.

Five Years Later

Tommy opened heavy eyes. Oh, man, his stomach hurt. He felt better
the instant he looked into blue eyes, the same shade as the sky.

"Hey, Merton."

"Hello, Tommy. Welcome home."

That was a new greeting. Usually, Merton either just pounced him, or
he said it was nice of Tommy to visit. Once again, Merton helped him
sit up. The injuries he had been taking in the fights had been
transcribing to this little realm, but they quickly faded when he
got here. Just like this one. Absently, Tommy wondered what had
happened.

"You've always been my home, Merton."

That comment earned him a kiss, and then Merton sat back. For some
reason, Tommy was reminded of the first time he had come here.
Before the letter Merton had left him. Before the Slayer. Before the
Darkness. Before everything the last five years had been.

"You did it."

Merton's quiet comment threw Tommy off beat. What did he mean, Tommy
had done it? "What?"

The frustrated sigh let him know he had said the wrong
thing. "What's the last thing you remember, Tommy?"

Frowning, Tommy thought about the battle that must have knocked him
unconscious. "Um, we found out that the Slayer's little sister was
the fifth point. And that the Darkness only had to midnight to take
her." Anger rolled deep in Tommy's gut. The points, the key points
of their world's stability, were held in five humans. Merton had
been one of those people, and that was what had lead to his death.

Gritting his teeth to get past the anger, Tommy continued. "We were
defending her. Some of the Darkness had gotten though, but there
were three of us there. Buffs, Xan, and me. Xan went down just a
minute after Buffs did. Then I could hear the clock the Darkness
carried begin to chime. After that, it's a blur."

A soft hand brushed back his hair. "Twelve chimes happened, Tommy.
Twelve. The midnight hour had struck, and Darkness had not destroyed
all five points. It was banished back, and the five points were
reborn all over the world."

Tommy gaped at him. "It's.... It's over?" he whispered, not
believing it. All he had done for the last five years had been
fighting, and sleeping, and the sleeping wasn't even really
sleeping, even if he did wake up refreshed. That had been his hiding
spot, his refuge. Merton had kept him sane in a world gone mad, and
now the madness was over.

"What about this?" Green eyes were large with terror. "Will I get to
come here still, or do I have to stop?"

Now Merton went stiff, and Tommy looked up at a muffled snuffle.
Tears were running down Merton's face, and he took it the wrong way.

"NO! They can't do this to us! I just spent the last part of my life
fighting for them. They can't take you away from me."

"Tommy! Tommy! Damnit, Tommy, listen to me!" Finally, Merton pressed
a hard kiss against his lover's lips. That shut the other boy up.

"Tommy, I want you to look at something." He led the taller boy over
to a pool, which they used sometimes to view the mortal world. "Xan
survived, and he remembered what you told him, Tommy."

Kneeling at the edge of the water, Tommy saw an old marker, wooden,
with words scratched on it. Five years ago, it had been a raw wound
in his heart. Nineteen years had not seemed long enough for Merton
to be alive. Nineteen years was such a short time, especially when
Tommy hadn't really noticed him until the last two.

But the marker wasn't alone anymore. Beside it sat a new stone. Made
of marble, it had just a few words on it.

Merton and Tommy
Mates Forever

"You didn't survive the last battle, Tommy," whispered Merton. "When
it realized it had failed, it tried to take everyone out with it.
You jumped between it and the others. And you died."

Tommy turned stunned eyes on Merton. "Now what?" he whispered. What
happened next? They had done their jobs, what would be done with
them.

Fingers slid around his face, and lifted his head until he and
Merton were face to face, so close their noses touched. "Tommy, we
can do whatever we want. We can move on, we can be reborn; we can
float around here for a few more centuries. We. Are. Free."

Free. It had been a long time since Tommy had felt really free, but
here, next to Merton, he did.

"Free," he sighed, then moved in to kiss Merton.

Right now, it was time to celebrate. They would decide what to do
later.

The End.


A/N: Damnit, I really did try to make this all angsty, and leave it
that way, but I just couldn't. Amazing this about this story is it
started out as a death letter from Merton. Somehow, our snuggly Goth
got himself killed, and Tommy found the latest version of his
goodbye letter. Originally, it was going to contain Merton's
confession of love, but it grew into this. Plot bunnies and sleep
deprivation do not mix.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Should I do snippets of what
happened during the missing five years, or leave it like this? Do
any of you guys want to put in what you think happened in the
missing years?