Author's Note: Read and review. Let me know what you think. Coming up next? Cordelia. And the end. In this chapter, we find out what actually changed everything. Something Buffy did. Huh.
The Lone Summers: Buffy
She feels bad about it as she boards the bus, really she does. She hadn't actually planned on attacking before Glory realized that it was the Bot. But she had. She'd kicked the god and immediately moved in with Olaf's hammer. Fit for a god, right?
She's watching Spike race up the tower and grins a bit, calming herself. He'll protect Dawn, she knows it. Because he said he would. She resumes beating the crap out of Glory.
Her hammer comes down again as Spike and Doc fly over the edge of the tower, her sister safe from being stabbed and used to end the world.
And again as her world slows and the portal still manages to open. Another quickly follows as her baby sister flies over the edge of the tower and lands on the rubble not six feet away.
Glory's Ben, but the hammer still comes down, and she sees Spike shoved into the tower. It doesn't even occur to her to say anything, to stop what's coming. But their eyes do meet as the stake slams into his chest.
Spike-
She can read his eyes. I love you, they say. I'm so sorry I failed-
She decides to believe that he did. That he loved her. But she doesn't think he failed, and she wishes she could tell him that, give him that peace.
Her peripheral vision catches Anya being run through and her heart breaks for Xander as Anya collapses into his arms and dies.
She continues to move, even as Willow's head hits the concrete and she slowly bleeds to death, all for the sake of Tara, who now kneels by Dawn, insane, like a fascinated child.
The blows continue to rain down on a battered and half-dead Ben as Giles helps Tara to her feet and practically drags the young, vulnerable woman out of the site. To safety. Help.
Ben takes his last breath and she steps back in horror as what she did sets in. Killed. She killed someone. She killed Ben. Oh, God.
The urge to vomit comes quickly and she does so, heaving until there's nothing left and she's just choking. Her eyes scan the site as she wipes at her mouth, hoping no one saw this, what she did. Her eyes scan the site, falling on the BuffyBot.
"Abscondo," She murmurs softly, remembering Tara telling her nervously that she made need the incantation one day. That it would come in handy in defeating Glory, although Buffy doesn't think Tara meant for this purpose.
It took virtually not magical ability to be able to do this. To build up the magical ability it took to hide something. Anything. And that's what she was doing. Concealing herself. She watches as the BuffyBot becomes flesh and bone, as she wanted. Blood runs from its temple, giving off the impression that it's the real her, and that she's dead. Which is exactly what she wants right now.
She backs away, into the shadows, as Xander hurries past and scales the nearby fence without sound, dropping lightly on the other side. She runs as fast as she can home, not even stopping at the sight of Giles' body. She enters through the back door and takes the stairs two at a time, bursting into her room. She pulls out a duffel bag, stuffing Mr. Gordo, a bunch of clothing she wouldn't dare part with, and some weaponry in her bag.
She hurries into Dawn's room, and stuffs a few of her sister's dolls into the bag. She then grabs the diary Dawn started just the other week and pushes it in, meanwhile looking for anything else she finds to be of value. She leaves her baby sister's room, then entering her mother's. She took all the jewelry, slipping her engagement ring on her right hand.
She hurries down the stairs, taking any mementos, and then she stands still for a moment. She's alone. Her mother's dead. Her sister's dead. She can't deal with this new level of loneliness and doesn't want to. He zips the bag closed, and then searches for cash. Happy to see that there's a couple hundred in nooks and crannies of the house, she leaves the way she came.
And she's alone as she buys her ticket and waits for her bus to anywhere but Los Angeles. She'll probably be alone for the rest of her life. But she's not surprised as she boards her bus, thinking back on what happened.
After all, she's the lone Summers.
