DISCLAIMER: All Characters are property of Fox Entertainment, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Entertainment and people in high places like that. Angel the Series and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are copyrighted, no infringement is intended. This story is for entertainment purposes only, I am in no way fiscally benefitiing from its creation, I'm just not lucky like that. Any characters not of the Whedon universe are mine, ask and I will share them.
Timeline: Post Season 7 of Buffy, Season 5 of Angel.
Feedback? That's my girl, lay it all on me at blackeydgurl
Reproduction? Only with my permission, ask, I don't bite!
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The dust began to settle in the crater. It felt as if days had passed by, when it had been simple hours, maybe minutes. It was light out, that was for sure. He could see where it was coming from, but he wasn't sure if he should go to it. He could feel his heart beating, and hear the blood pushing its way through arteries and veins long free of such work. He was thirsty, and dirty and tired.
How could this even be? He remembered the shining light, the cavern around him crumbling, and falling. In a sense, he could feel the soul in him celebrating, it was dancing inside of him. He remembered holding her hand, and the fire it had created. Was it from the fire he held for her, the spark? Was she being truthful when she had told him of her love for him? Was their love for each other what generated the spark, the fire that lit their hands?
Before the cavern everything was bits and pieces. He knew that he was not alive before this moment, and all he could remember was her face. After she went up the stairs, out of this place he had felt a rush of light pass through him, and then nothing, darkness, a void. And now, he could see light, and feel with his hands the destruction around him. Had there been some sort of earthquake? Was he trapped below the rubble? Would someone find him? Would they know who he was? He didn't.
By evening he had made it to the edge of the crater; his hand reached up and felt the first piece of solid land he had touched. He hoisted himself out of the hole and turned to see it behind him, even at night small fires burned and he could see the vast nature of it. Had he crawled from that? Beneath him now was a road, around him, sand and cacti. He was in a desert, and had to find his way out, the road was the simplest solution.
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The gang had reloaded onto the school bus. Giles took over driving duty as Wood had no business behind the wheel. Lucky for him, having a slayer for a mother helped him heal more quickly than others. Faith sat with him, holding him, consoling him. Buffy had never seen Faith act with such tenderness, except when it came to Angel, but even that wasn't like this. Dawn had fallen asleep almost immediately after getting back onto the bus. The newly anointed slayers sat and chatted, when were those girls silent? Did they ever actually sleep?
Xander and Andrew quietly talked, at first about Anya, but eventually about the strange world of comic books and science fiction that Buffy never realized Xander had a clue about. It must have been one of those guy things he never mentioned. Willow laid in Kennedy's arms, asleep, drained of all the energy she had. Buffy sat at the back of the bus, in the last seat. She couldn't help but look back, half expecting him to be chasing the bus, screaming for them to "bloody well stop," that his undead body could only tolerate so much abuse. But he was never there.
She decided they should go to Los Angeles. Angel was there, and his big ass hotel with enough room for them to come up with a plan. Angel was really the last person she wanted to see right now, especially after the incident in the graveyard. She loved him, and always would, but somewhere inside her she knew that she loved Spike too. It was less like the love she had for Angel, it was more, grown-up maybe? She felt safe with Spike, unjudged, unconditionally loved, trusted whole heartedly, but most of all she didn't feel alone.
Now she wasn't completely alone in the world, the burden of slayerhood was no longer hers and Faith's alone to bear. There were girls all over the world with the power to stop the forces of darkness, so what did that leave her with? An unfinished college degree from a school that no longer existed? A resume with 2 jobs on it, from places that no longer existed? Her slate had been wiped clean. She didn't even need to pay for repairs to chateau Summers, or feed all these mouths anymore. Of the two men she loved, one no longer existed, the other unattainable, still. What was she going to do? Right now, she was going to cry, quietly, looking back, not looking forward.