Title: Destinies Revealed.

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Series 1 of Buffy up to Prophecy Girl.

Rating: R for some Extreme Violence.

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy her and Tara but I am broke. This story is inspired by 3D Master's fic Chosen To Destroy. I'm playing in his sandbox with his permission.

Summary: When Buffy dies during Prophecy Girl, the rest of the Scooby Gang begin to grow into their own destinies. Inspired by 3D Master's fic, Chosen To Destroy. Warning Character Death!

Distribution: If you want it, just ask and tell me where you are putting it. Thanx.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Okay, what's up?" Buffy asked, looking at Xander.

"Uh, let's go over here and sit." Xander said nervously, leading her to a bench in the quad.

"Okay, now you're making me nervous." Buffy said, giving Xander a look.

"Oh, no, no, there's nothing to be nervous about. Really, it's silly. Ha, ha!" Xander says as they sit on the bench.

"Well?" Buffy asked, beginning to wonder if Xander was ill or something.

"Um... You know, Buffy, uh, Spring Fling is a... time for students to gather and... Oh, God! Buffy, I want you to go to the dance with me. You and me, on a date." Xander said in a rush.

"I-I don't know what to say." Buffy replied in shock.

"Well, you're not laughing. So that's a good start. Buffy, I like you. A lot. And I know we're friends, and we've had experiences... we've fought some blood-sucking fiends, and that's all been a good time. But I want more. I wanna dance with you."

Xander's voice was filled with emotion.

"Look, Xander, I'm sorry, but I can't." Buffy said sadly.

"Oh. I get it." Xander said, his hopeful expression fading.

"No, you don't. I like you, Xander. A lot. On my first day, when you asked if you could have me, I almost said yes." Buffy confessed.

"Wow." Xander said.

"Yeah." Buffy said sadly. "You and Willow are not the first to help me I the Slaying. Before I got booted, there was this guy, Pike. He was kinda like you, when he found out about the Slaying he decided to help."

Buffy paused, emotion and unshed tears filling her eyes. Xander wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she leaned in, drawing comfort from his presence.

"I got him killed, Xander." She whispered. "One stupid mistake. We were.. close, and I got him killed. I couldn't stand it if that happened to you."

"I'm still going to help." Xander said, almost defensively.

"Maybe some day, Xander. Maybe then I'll be ready, but not now. I can't now." She promised.

"Hey, I understand. I may never pay attention in class and hate it when Giles makes us do research, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid." Xander assured her.

********

"She's gone." Xander said, looking around Angel's apartment.

'Wow. He has collected a lot of shit over the years.' Xander thought as he looked around.

"What do you mean?" Angel asked in confusion.

"Buffy, she's gone to fight the Master." Xander clarified.

"He'll kill her."

"Rumour has it. Only we're not gonna let it happen."

"Well, what do you propose we do about it?" Angel asked, getting peeved at this child.

"Look, I know you can find this Master guy. He's underground, right? Take me to him." Xander demanded.

"You're way out of your league, kid. The Master'll kill you before you can even breathe. If you're lucky."

"How can I say this clearly?" Xander said, pulling a cross and advancing on Angel. "I don't like you. At the end of the day, I pretty much think you're a vampire. But Buffy's got this deal where she thinks you are useful. She thinks you're a real person. And right now I need you to prove her right."

"You're in love with her." Angel stated.

"Of course, aren't you?"

"Alright, give me a minute."

Angel left Xander waiting in the living room.

'Or is that unliving room?' Xander though idly.

"Come on. Time is of the essence." Xand called out.

A few seconds later Angel emerged ready to go.

"Let's go." Angel said.

********

Xander followed Angel down into the Master's Lair.

"Shit. He's gone." Angel said.

"Buffy!" Xander exclaimed when he saw her body.

She was laying face down in a pool of water, with a vampire's bite marks clear on her throat. What disturbed Xander the most was that the water was pink, very pink. Xander hurried over and pulled her from the water, and saw her pail pallor.

"She's dead." Angel said solemnly.

"We still got a shot, CPR." Xander said, knelling down beside her body, and motioning Angel to do the same.

"I have no breath." Angel replies to the gesture, taking a few steps back.

Annoyed at the vampire, Xander started doing CPR, alternating between breathing into her mouth and pushing on her chest to restart her heart. After several minutes of desperate work, Xander finally admitted that Buffy was dead, sitting back on his ankles and dropping his head in defeat, tears streaming down his face.

"We couldn't stop it Xander. It was destiny." Angel said.

Xander felt anger rising in him, his eyes drying as he rose to his feet.

"No breath?" Xander whispered before raising his voice. "How are you talking?"

"What?"

"If you have no breath, then how are you talking?!"

"I don't.." Angel began.

You chicken shit bastard!! Why didn't you at least help with the compressions?" Xander's rising anger becoming apparent in his voice.

Angel's silence echoed through the carven. Range and Adrenaline starting rising to new heights.

"You don't know how. That's it isn't it? I could have shown you. You could've done it better. You're dead, no need for Oxygen, but no. You make me sick."

"It was written." Angel said desperately, trying to defend himself.

"A convenient excuse for those who sit by and do nothing!"

Xander was stalking forward, his anger focused on the undead coward before him. Angel began backing away from the boy, seeing the dangerous glint in his eyes.

"If you had've helped, we could have saved her!" Xander raged.

"No. I.." Angel began, but was suddenly cut of by the disintegration of his lungs and vocal cords into a fine dust, as a result of the wooden Stake that Xander had driven into his heart.

"Now for the Master." Xander said, shifting the focus of his rage.

Xander, Adrenaline and rage pulsing within him, began to run, searching for the nearest exit from the sewers. His mind working in overdrive, he mentally back tracked the path that Angel had led him down and then retraced its path on the streets above.

"The School." He whispered, pumping his legs harder.

********

As he approached the school, he saw a flicker of movement on the roof above the Library and knew it was the Master. Barely paying any attention to the vampiric guard, just coat-hangering him as he passed, Xander sprinted up the stairs to the roof.

Letting out a growl of anger, Xander burst through the door at the top of the stairs and came face to face with the Master. Without pause, Xander crouched and launched himself at the ancient Vampire, impacting with such force that it sent both of them rolling across the roof. With reason and restraint clouded by his overwhelming anger, Xander began clawing and biting the Master. The Master, after sixty years underground and a few centuries without an opponent of quite this level, was shocked to find a seemingly normal human attacking so fiercely. Wrapping his arm around one of the Master's, Xander yanked it brutally, causing the Master's upper arm to shatter.

Taking advantage of the Master's weakness, Xander drew back and delivered a powerful blow, which caved in the Master's entire chest, ripping it open in two places and spewing blood across the rooftop. Struggling through the pain, the Master tried to bite Xander, who pulled back from reach. Taking half a step back, Xander jumped and brought all the crushing weight of his entire body down on the Master's knees, shattering them into a fine powder and eliciting a scream of pain that echoed throughout Sunnydale, only to be topped a second late when Xander grabbed the Master's shattered arm and ripped it right out of the socket. Xander stalked towards the Master as the severed arm turned to dust in his hand. The Master, unable to struggle away with only one arm and both his knees shattered, looked on in fear. With amazing strength born of the massive amounts of Adrenaline pumping through his veins, Xander punched the Master in the face so hard that his entire cranium exploded in a shower of blood, pulverised brain tissue and bone, which turned to dust a second later, along with the rest of his body.

As the Adrenaline began to ware off, Xander started to limp back down the stairs, several slashes from the Master's claws marked his chest and arms, with a particularly brutal one marring his right thigh. Entering the Library, Xander dropped down onto one of the chairs with a wince. He saw Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Miss Calender, all standing around supporting at least minor injuries.

"Where's Buffy?" Willow asked.

"The Master killed her." Xander said sadly.

"And the Master?" Miss Calender asked.

"Dead. I killed him." Xander sighed as if it made little difference. "Angel's dead too."

"Oh my god. What are we going to do now?" Willow asked.

Everyone was silent for a few minutes before Xander sighed again and stood, moving towards the door.

"I'm going to tell Mrs Summers." Xander commented before the doors swung shut behind him.

TBC.