Gone
Disclaimer: Nothing is property of me. It's all Joss's.
The various hell dimensions that had been inflicted on the Earth were closing back up again, bringing the various creatures they had brought with them back to where they belonged. Willow Rosenberg knew that somewhere inside of her she should be happy because she had once again assisted in saving the world. But she could not be happy.
The petite body in front of her was the reason why. It was small, barely over five feet in height and not possibly much over one hundred pounds. But what it had been was the one thing the redheaded witch was not prepared to loose, Buffy Anne Summers.
As the tears came streaming down her pale face, Willow realized it was truly happening. It was not just some horrible nightmare she was having. It was the truth. Her best friend was dead- gone. She was unprepared for it. She had known going into the battle that there was a high chance not everyone was going to make it out alive. Personally, she had thought the one to die would have been ex-vengeance demon Anya but that could have been just a result of her disliking of Xander's girlfriend. The thought that it could have been the Slayer's last battle had never crossed her mind.
From beside Willow, her newly remade sane girlfriend Tara Maclay could not speak. She too was extremely shocked to look at the dead body lying no more than ten feet in front of her. It looked so peaceful, like the blond Slayer was sleeping. There was nothing Tara could say that would make herself or Willow feel better and Tara knew that. The only thing she could do was extend her non-broken hand out to her girlfriend for comfort.
Rupert Giles just stood there, stunned more than anything that had ever happened to him on the Hellmouth. The body was the one thing that told him he had truly failed his job as Watcher. The Council could claim it was when he cared too much, but they were wrong. Giles could not help but thinking that if he had been better at research, if he could have found out more than he could have saved her.
He had a father's love for the girl and it hurt him more than ever to see her lying there. It was the visual reminder of his failure as a Watcher. He had no tears for they would not be enough to convey the emotion he was feeling at the moment.
Xander Harris stood in shock further from the body at Giles's right hating everything that was going on with his life this day. Between almost loosing Anya and actually loosing Buffy, it was just too much for him to go through. He wished there was some way for him to be the dead body lying there. Besides Anya, he had nothing to live for whereas Buffy could have been saving more lives. Not knowing anything to say or do, he stood there silently holding desperately onto Anya.
And Anya. She knew something terrible had happened, something beyond the excruciating pain searing through her young and mortal body, but she was unsure of exactly what that was. She could dimly see the small body of her friend Buffy in front of her, but was unable to connect the fact that the Slayer was not moving to the fact that the Slayer might be dead. The only thing she could do was rest her exhausted head against Xander's warm and comforting shoulder.
Dawn Summers finished her long trek down the tower until she reached the bottom. Where her sister's body lay and she would have to come to the fact that she was all alone in the world. First, although she had not technically been alive in human form at the time, her father had left her. Then her mother had passed away. And now Buffy. Dawn could not help but feeling as if she were totally abandoned in the large and evil world out there. The world where she had no family left.
Spike finally arose from his kneeling and crying position. The tears were still pouring from his face, more than ever once he had seen Dawn standing there. But the news of Buffy's death was still new, and he needed a lot of time to get used to the fact, if he ever could. But for any of that to happen, he would have to get away from the constant reminder that the girl he loved was dead.
"I'm getting the bloody hell out of here," he whispered softly as he stormed past the two witches angrily. Before anyone could stop him, he was on the main streets of Sunnydale heading back over towards his crypt to lock himself and never come out. Unless he had to watch Dawn, he amended. When needed, he would protect her with his unlife until the end of the world.
One by one the Scoobies began walking over to their father figure, Giles. Through a lot of deep breaths, Willow was finally able to start calming herself down. The tears, though still present, were fewer and further apart. "What are we going to do?" she asked finally, breaking off the silence covering the area.
Xander shook his head slightly as he forced himself to look away from his friend's body in front of him. "I know how you feel," he began softly. "But what are we supposed to do?"
"Well, one thing at a time," Giles began as he drew everyone in closer with one short motion with his left hand. He looked around, surveying the damage that had been done that evening, most of which in the last fifteen minutes. "You have got to get her to a doctor soon or she'll just be one more body to Sunnydale's already high mortality rate," he pointed out to Xander with a nod down at Anya.
"What happened exactly?" Tara asked Xander, her voice filled with genuine concern.
Xander swallowed hard. "She saved my life," he said softly as he looked down gratefully at Anya. "I'm not exactly sure why, but she saved my life," he choked.
"And now you have to do the same!" Giles pointed out angrily with an insistent gesture down at Anya's very injured body.
Xander nodded as he shifted Anya slightly within his arms, allowing him to get to the keys to the truck with the wrecking ball on it. He carefully placed Anya in the passenger seat then rushed to the driver's side and began driving off to the Sunnydale Emergency Room.
"Now what?" Dawn asked as she finally joined the group. "Where am I supposed to go now?" she choked back.
Tara felt a pang of sympathy for the girl and wrapped an arm around the thin upper portion of her body. "I'll take care of you," she promised with a small kiss to Dawn's forehead.
"Angel," Willow began as she looked into Giles's eyes. "Giles, he has to know about this. I know he needs to know."
"You'll call him then?" Giles asked curiously.
Willow shook her head slightly. "Giles, I have to tell him in person. I have the new address of his business slash home. I'm borrowing your car and driving up there. I have to," she informed the Watcher. "You know how much she means to him."
Giles nodded understandingly. "I understand," he said as he fished his own car keys out from his pocket. "It's parked in front of the Magic Box as always," he told her. "Be careful with it!" he added a moment later.
"Scout's honor," Willow promised as she began racing throughout Sunnydale.
"What'll the rest of us do?" Dawn asked as she glanced back and forth between Tara and Giles. "You can't expect me to just sit here and do nothing."
"I know," Tara said as she began rubbing the former Key's back in small round circles. "But it's been a long night and you need some rest," she said gently.
Giles nodded in agreement. "So you'll take her home then?" he asked Tara.
Tara smiled slightly at Giles as she began guiding Dawn home, ignoring any of the teenager's attempts to get free. As they were leaving, Giles bent down to Buffy and picked her up in his arms, planting a small kiss on her forehead. "Thank you," he whispered softly to the lifeless body. "You really did something great back there."
The usual ninety minute to two hour drive to Los Angeles from Sunnydale did not seem to go by that slowly, Willow noted as she parked Giles's car on the street in front of the Hyperion Hotel, the address she had gotten via Cordelia Chase of where Angel was staying. She quickly got herself out of the car and rushed to the doors, happy to find them unlocked. "Angel?" she called into the lobby as she closed the large doors behind her. "Cordelia? Wesley?" she tried a moment later. "Anyone?" she asked.
As she still was getting no answer, she headed over towards the chairs and sat down, figuring that they were just out on some case or another and would return very soon.
As if on cue, she heard back hotel door starting to open followed by the sound of Angel's voice. "Can I say it? I wanna say it," the brooding vampire's voice was saying.
"Say what?" came the British reply from Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Willow could hear the words they were saying, but still could not tell were they were coming from.
Finally the doors to the hotel itself opened and Angel walked in with a triumphant smile on his face. "There's no place like" he began before catching site of Willow. His smile quickly vanished into nothing as he knew why the redhead was there. "Willow?" he began softly.
"What's" Cordelia began in confusion as she turned back to Wesley.
Willow said nothing, only slowly stood as her hazel eyes met Angel's brown ones.
"It's Buffy," Angel said softly as he walked closer towards Willow.
"What's Buffy?" Cordelia asked in the same quiet tone of voice. "Angel, what is going on here?" she asked a moment later as her voice returned to its normal speaking level.
"Who's Buffy?" Winnifred Burkle whispered to Charles Gunn and Lorne.
Gunn shifted slightly as he turned over to Fred. "One of Angel's Sunnydale friends," he whispered back. "Where Angel lived before here," he added for clarification. "They probably need some alone time," he told her as he gestured around at Wesley, Angel, Cordelia, and Willow. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up."
Fred nodded slightly at Gunn as she followed him up the stairs towards where she presumed the showers would be. And soap since Cordelia had promised there would be some. Lorne looked around and a moment later he followed the non-Sunnydale people up the stairs as well.
"How?" Angel asked as he approached Willow. "When? How?"
Willow swallowed hard as she tried to get her facts straight. She knew the answers to all of Angel's questions and needed the courage to say them. "Big hell portal," she began softly. "It's complicated, but this hellgoddess was using Dawn's blood to open it so she could return home"
"Why Dawn?" Cordelia asked. "I don't mean to interrupt, but why go after the Slayer's sister when you could be going after the Slayer."
Willow nodded slightly as she remembered that the former Sunnydale civilians only had memories that Dawn had existed all those years. They did not know that it was only false memories. "Dawn's not really Buffy's sister," she began. "Don't interrupt, Cordelia, I'm getting to it. Dawn was originally mystical energy that would be used to open all these hell portals and release them on Earth. But these monks knew it wasn't safe so they sent Dawn, with all of our memories of her, to Buffy as a sister so that Buffy would protect her. You follow me?"
Angel, Cordelia, and Wesley nodded slightly but said nothing as a cue for Willow to continue. "Anyway, so the Hellgoddess found out who Dawn really was, the Key, and at the designated time, she planned to use Dawn's blood to release hell on Earth so she could return home. That time was earlier tonight. Although Glory had been killed before, she had this servant guy or something cut Dawn in case she couldn't get up there in time. Once the ritual starts, the only thing that will stop it is when the blood stops flowing."
"When Dawn is dead," Wesley added.
"That doesn't really explain the Buffy thing," Cordelia pointed out gently.
Willow nodded, knowing it was a lot of confusing information to take in all at once. It sure had taken her a couple of days to begin to fully accept that Dawn was new to the cruel world. She drew in a deep breath as she thought of the most reasonable way to explain Buffy's death. "Ok, I said Dawn wasn't really Buffy's sister," she started. "She's actually part of Buffy. When the monks made her somehow they used Buffy's blood or something," she continued hesitantly. "Whatever they did, it was enough to trick the portal into thinking it was Dawn and close it. The energy…It was too much."
"It killed her," Angel said softly in realization as he slouched his body down onto one of the chairs in the hotel lobby.
Willow nodded gravely as she fought back the urge to start crying once again. "That's why I'm here," she concluded.
"When?" Angel began as his face began flushing with anger. "When did this happen?"
"The whole Glory wanting Dawn thing- over a span of a couple of months. The grand battle, a couple hours ago," Willow answered honestly.
"Dammit!" Angel yelled as he turned away in anger. "We could have helped her! We could have been there!" he yelled. "This sucks!" He shifted his gaze over to Willow. "Why didn't you tell me that all of this was going on?"
"Buffy didn't want to bother you," Willow whispered.
"It's notit's not bothering. We would have all been glad to help. Right?" he asked as he looked over at Wesley and Cordelia.
"Oh, I need to sit down," Cordelia said as she walked over towards the round couch in the middle of the lobby. "This is all just too mind boggling."
Wesley followed Cordelia and stood behind the young woman. His left hand was placed on the back of the couch for support as he tried to grasp the condition he was being presented with. The mythology behind it all made sense, but he still could not believe that Buffy was dead. He had only been in contact with her for a few months over two years ago, but he could sense that she was a true fighter. Something like this should not have happened.
"So what now?" Cordelia asked as she looked tragically around at Willow, Angel, and Wesley.