Date: August 9th, 2005

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the TRA:JQ characters and neither do I own any of the characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No money is made out of this fic. Don't sue me as I'm not sure I can afford Ally McBeal.

Category: A, DBN-HR, F, E, JQ/Buffy Crossover

Rating: Parental guidance is advised.

Author's note: This takes place after Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is my account on what happens and is based fully on my own creativity.

Archiver's Permission: Granted to those who want it. Just inform me on where it can be found.

EPILOGUE: CYCLES

He stood on the hilltop, a disheveled and bloodied warrior, watching as the pink dawn appeared; something which he had taken for granted until recently. As the shreds of clouds began to lose their pink stain and became tinged with the richest gold, the sun rose. The sky turned to the clearest blue imaginable, a virgin azure that was free from any of the evil from the night before.

Jonny took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Foul isn't it?" he asked, without turning.

Buffy stepped next to him. "How'd you know?"

"I know." He left it at that, and he knew she understood.

"So, that's what you fought last night?" she asked, letting a little awe show. The massive charred carcass still smoked.

He smiled. "That's what we fought… all of us. The end of the world! And look…" He waved his arms in an arc. "The sun's still shining and we're still standing. I think that's enough cause for a small celebration."

"Just a small one." There was sadness in her voice.

"I'm sorry he can't share this with you."

"So am I. But in his own way, he does"

Jonny nodded. "How'd you know I was still here?"

"I didn't. But I had to find out. If you weren't, I needed to know if you had left, or simply perished in the fight."

"Still here. I could stand for a long hot shower, and I'll need to be going."

"How's home?"

"I checked in. Everyone's okay. We had some killer waves on top of everything else, but Sunnydale was hit worse." He set his jaw. "I can already see the damage to the city."

Buffy gazed at the city, and grimly noted that the town was badly damaged in many areas. Deep cracks veined the streets and sidewalks, and upheavals of the earth had caused many buildings to collapse in places, as well as shift many of the roads. Smoke still rose from sections of buildings and the flashing lights of emergency personnel blinked like Christmas lights.

"How 'bout you? You okay?"

"As I said, I need a shower. But otherwise, aside from being a major bruise all over, I should be okay." He grinned and she realized that he was not much worse for wear than she was.

"Thank your friend for us. For all of us. He must be something special…"

Jonny smiled. "He is…" He turned away. "Guess I'll be headed for Angel's then. Clean up and all."

"Are you leaving? Like right away?"

Jonny shrugged. "Nothing left for me over here. Job's done. Got my own town to protect tonight."

"No rest for the wicked, huh?"

"You know it!" He brushed his hair aside. "Nor for the Slayer."

"It's a hard existence."

"Hard life you mean. This is our life, Buffy."

"I know."

"Hey, it could be worse."

"How?"

"We could just be average spoilt high school kids, with not a care in the world beyond the next Abercrombie catalog!"

"I was that. It wasn't too bad…" she joked.

He laughed. "Merry Christmas, Buffy!"

JQJQJQ

MAINE

Benton heaved a sigh of relief. The Quest Compound had not been badly damaged by the killer tsunamis. The guest wing had sustained some minor damage; some water had been forced in by the sheer force of the waves, and a few windows were broken. Other than some damaged upholstery and window fixtures, the rest of the wing was relatively unspoiled.

"Could've been worse, I guess, Doc," Race noted, a jovial grin spreading on his face.

Benton nodded. "A lot worse. The lighthouse is fine, I already checked that." Straightening up, he surveyed the rest of the compound with a calculated analysis. "We'll just have to scoop up about a ton of kelp and driftwood, but aside from that, the Compound's in pretty good shape."

"As compared to the time when Zin completely crushed it," Hadji added, kicking aside a clump of seaweed. "This stuff smells awful!"

"How's Jonny?" Race asked, looking out over the ocean.

"About as good as can be expected. He promised he wasn't going to die, although I'm not sure whether I should be comforted by his choice of words, or otherwise." Benton shuddered. "He said he would be home today, though."

"Shouldn't he be resting?" Hadji asked, frowning.

"I told him to take a day, but he insisted on flying home today. Something about having to take care of the town."

"Duty," Race nodded. "He's finally understood the weight placed on his shoulders."

"It's a heavy burden, Race," Benton added ruefully. "Immensely heavy."

"Not even you can help him with this one, Benton. The boy's path had already been chosen, whether he accepts it or not." Surveying the damage once more, he said, "I'll call the construction team tomorrow."

A sharp yelp alerted them to the white streak that ran around them in dizzying circles. Hadji laughed and picked up the dog. "You missed us, didn't you, Bandit?"

Bandit gave an adamant bark in reply as he squirmed in Hadji's strong arms. Laughing, the man released him, and the dog ran back indoors. To Jonny's room most likely, Hadji thought, his high spirits dampened by a little more than the chill of the morning air.

"Let's go in," Benton said, headed indoors himself. "I need food and a hot shower!"

Race got off the phone. "Jade and Seth are on their way back. The Dragonfly II has been authorized for take-off in a few hours."

Benton nodded gravely. He had been worried about the two of them, even more so for the boy. Jade had run the plan quickly by him, and he had seriously doubted the boy's capabilities. He had agreed solely on the fact that should they fail, at least the boy would have been removed from immediate danger. Seth had not seemed eager to go, cracking his knuckles nervously on the drive to the airport.

He did it though. We did what we could to stall, but he saved the world, Benton realized. Picturing Seth's lanky frame, Benton couldn't help but be awed by the sheer immensity of the power that the boy must possess.

"What about Jonny?" Hadji asked, looking up from the newspaper he had been reading. News on the apocalypse had made it to the front page, but it had been severely played down; authorities claiming that it was a simple natural disaster and the catastrophic events that occurred, the product of an abrupt shift in the tectonic plates. Several similar reports from different states also made the bottom column, including Sunnydale, California.

"His flight should be taking off anytime soon."

Jonny stepped into the arrival lounge and scanned the area for a familiar face. His gaze fell on the languid form of Seth, leaning against a pillar, a bored expression on his face as he sipped absently at his soda. Jonny gave a brief wave and saw Seth nod in acknowledgement. Typical, he thought. Emotionless as usual. But even then, he knew that it wasn't true; the automaton façade that hid the real Seth was just mostly impermeable. He had seen a glimpse of him…

Slinging the duffel on his shoulder and picking up the carefully wrapped sword, he headed over to Seth's general vicinity. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"Dr. Quest is addressing a local committee meeting in town tonight, something about last night's 'strange happenings.' Race is working on re-programming some of the security features temporarily till the damage sustained by the Compound can be fixed. Hadji is dropping Jade off to whichever secret location she's headed for next." He shrugged. "That leaves just me. Unless you preferred Bandit."

Jonny smiled. "I'm not complaining. But Bandit would have been nice too."

Seth turned and began to head out. "He's in the car."

"Seth!" He turned around at the call of his name. "Thank you," Jonny said, looking his square in the eyes. "What you did… I will never understand what it is that you did, but it was amazing, and it saved us all. You saved us all!"

Seth smiled, a wan ghost of his radiance. "I did what I had to do…" His voice was touched with sadness, and even deeper than that, Jonny saw the pain that still burned him. An inextinguishable flame that would glower indefinitely.

"I'm leaving," Seth announced as he guided the car smoothly along the ridge road that girdled the cliffs. "Next week."

"Seth…"

"My job is done. I can no longer do more," Seth continued, cutting Jonny off.

"But…"

"I can't help you anymore here…"

"Shut up, goddammit!" Jonny snapped. "What the hell are you talking about? You just saved our asses. If it wasn't for you last night, we wouldn't be having this argument right now!"

"You shut up!" Seth exploded, slamming on the brakes and swinging the wheel to the side of the road. "You were right before! You have no idea what happened last night, so don't you dare give me shit about my decision!"

"Why don't you make me understand then, Seth? Why don't you let me in for once? For possibly the first time in your life, why don't you let someone see who you are?"

"Because I don't like myself, Jon! Because I hate what I've become, who I've become!" Seth stared out at the snowy landscape that lined the other side of the cliff, breathing deeply, his breath fogging up the glass. "I'm not who I want to be, Jon… I'll probably never be that. I'm the product of bastardization and rape, not of love and care!"

Seeing the tenderness in Jonny's face, he quickly added, "Not rape in that way, Jon. But for as long as I can remember, I've always had this force within me, this unnatural gift that no human should have to bear. It's a gift, but so are curses; they're given without your consent or expectation. I've learned to be useful, but I don't feel useful anymore."

"So this is it? You're throwing in the towel because you can't deal with it anymore?"

Seth laughed, a choked cackle that caught in the phlegm in his throat. Swallowing, he said, "I threw in the towel last night. It was the simplest decision I'd ever made, and it was so easy."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I gave up last night, Jonny. I surrendered myself willingly to powers that were beyond my human expectations; powers that ripped me to shreds and reassembled this enormous well of magic that's never been known to mankind. In that moment, I was both Creation and Destruction, Eros and Thanatus, Brahma and Siva! I was as the Goddess and gods were before we boxed them into the roles of the pagan temptress and almighty Father. I saw our entire existence for what it was, a blink of an eye, and I saw you fighting to preserve that. And I gave up.

"I let it go… It would have destroyed me, and I let it go… At a price, of course."

Feeling Jonny's hand close on his, the warmth creeping up his chilled fingers, he continued. "I no longer have any power, Jonny. I'm not your healer anymore… I'm just broken."

"You learned you healing powers, you can do it again."

Seth shook his head. "That part of me is gone forever…"

"Forever's a very long time."

"And this will last longer."

"So it's all gone?"

"I still have some… earth magic that I was born with." Seeing the surprise in Jonny's face, Seth realized how much of his life he had veiled away, even from the one person he had ever loved. "I carry one of the many lines of an ancient world, lost to civilization, but not to faith. That was also a reason for my selection as the avatar for the power that I-1 channeled into me."

"And because the greater part of power is gone, you think that you're no longer of any use to us?" Jonny asked incredulously.

"I was your healer, that was my job. I can't do that anymore. I'm pretty sure that puts me within the context of useless."

Jonny groaned. "Your entire life does not revolve around your job or duty, Seth! There's still you to think about, the human aspect to look forward to. You're not worthless because you can no longer perform the task that you were trained to do!"

There was no reply.

"What were you going to do? Go back to running errands for I-1? You're greater than than and you know it. So stay here. Help in whatever way you can! We're gonna need someone to help along with the research… Hadji's leaving soon."

Nothing again.

"This doesn't have anything to do with avoiding me, does it? Because of what we had?" Jonny was still holding on to Seth's slender hand and he felt it tighten.

"It'll be difficult," Seth said, turning around finally. "At first. But I'll get over it… and life will go on." He smiled and put the gear into shift.

Jonny set idly on gravestone, twirling his stake around while waiting impatiently. His breath fogged with each exhalation. All the victims of the night before had been buried in this cemetery, with no charge to the family members. A Christmas present from the town who shared the sorrow of those surviving the deceased.

Hush money, Jonny grimaced. But it was better than setting off mass hysteria among the townfolk. Unless the sleepy town needed a little shock to get it on its feet. Till then, I'll have to be the wheelchair.

The frost-packed earth shifted. Showtime!

THE END