Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN, M.E, and various other corporations own Buffy. They can keep 'em, too. Final Fantasy is owned by Square and their subsidiaries. Although I wish I owned the rights to those games, it's never gonna happen…

Title: Vampire's Final Fantasy

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Rating: R. What, you expect me to write something that isn't?

Feedback: Much appreciated, and craved.

Crossover: Final Fantasy/Buffy the Vampire Layer

Continuity: Buffy: Seasons 1 & 2, up to the end of Becoming. Final Fantasy: VIII, but the game hasn't been truly started yet. Set in the universe, but the time has not yet arrived…

Thanks/Shout-outs: Teri, Mutant, VegaKeep, Enterprise1701D. [waves] Hi, guys! (And gal)

Notes: I'm going slowly insane… my writing time goes down, so what do I do? I start a new fic. Jeez.

*

Buffy stopped as she heard a noise in the bushes, and turned toward it. "Come out, I know you're there!"

Xander appeared slowly from the bushes, brandishing a fist sized rock in one hand, and a cast on the other. "The Cavalry's here, Buff…" he grinned deprecatingly, "the cavalry's a scared guy with a rock, but it's here."

Buffy sighed with relief. "Oh, thank God, Xand…" she moved away. "I've… I've got to…"

Xander nodded. "Yeah. Willow gave me a message for you…" he seemed to pause, as if debating with himself internally. "She asked me to tell you that she's trying the spell again…"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he had made the wrong choice.

Buffy smiled with relief, and nodded gratefully. Her eyes had unclouded, and she seemed happier than she had for weeks. She lunged forward, and hugged Xander around the waist. "Thank you, Xander."

Xander tried to undo some of the damage he knew he had done with the truth, pulling back out of her embrace and looking into her eyes. "Buffy, he needs to be stopped… if he opens Acathla…"

Buffy's expression turned ugly for a second, and she pulled back further in anger, before becoming neutral. Sparks of hope still shined in her eyes. "If Willow's spell works, I wont have to."

As Buffy walked into the Mansion, Xander shook his head. "Will it be in time?" he whispered, "is it already too late?"

*

Acathla's mouth ground open slowly, as the vortex into hell formed. Angelus grinned as his plans; the many months of preparation for this date came to fruition.

"Beautiful…" he hissed.

Spike, on the other hand, was less than impressed. "What, you expect a bloody great rock to do all our work for us? Yank the other, Angie, it's got bells on."

Angelus turned to the wheelchair bound William the Bloody, and for a moment was tempted by the thought of violence, or of throwing Spike into Acathla, to be the first to welcome the new order. Instead, he smiled, and Spike rolled his chair back unconsciously in fear. "I wont have to, Spike. Buffy will do all my work for me…" he turned at a sound from across the room.

Buffy was making her way slowly across the grand hall of the mansion, her eyes fixed on Angel.

Angelus grinned. "And here she is now… right on time."

Buffy cast a quick look at the seated vampire who had rolled back behind Angelus, and blinked as he nodded slightly. Angelus stepped forward further, intent on bringing the reign of humans on the earth to a grinding halt.

"Hello, Lover. I said I'd call… did ya get bored without me?"

Buffy stood mute, staring at the soulless form of her true love. Keep him talking; talking… if he's busy with me, he can't open Acathla. Willow is trying the soul spell again… I hope it works, because I can't, I can't kill him!

Buffy unsheathed a short sword, and tested its weight in her hand. From nowhere, Angelus found a mirror of her blade.

The battle was joined…

*

Xander crept along the edges of the mansion, looking for a way in. He didn't want to follow Buffy, in case she had encountered resistance, and had fought her way through, rather than eradicating the opposition.

A voice sounded from near him. "Hey! Who are you?"

Xander stood up slowly, and turned around. A vampire, obviously a young one from his posture, was standing a few feet away. He shrugged. "I'm no one."

The vampire grinned maliciously. "No… you're a snack."

Xander stepped back as the vampire stepped forward, and held up his broken arm in a placating gesture. "Hey, hey, you don't want to eat me! Angelus wouldn't like it!"

The mention of the Master Vampire made the fledgling pause, and he looked around, worried. "You know Angelus?" It asked in awe.

Xander nodded. "Yeah, he and I go way back…" Might as well play it by ear…

"You want to see him?"

It might be the only chance I get… he told himself, but what about…? He silenced his inner voice. "Sure. It's about time I had a chat with the Old man."

The vampire nodded. "Follow me."

Xander followed the vampire into the Mansion, and through several corridors, until they reached one of the doors to the Grand Hall. Xander could here the sounds of a swordfight from behind the door, and curses from Angelus as he was blocked, but never wounded.

The vampire turned as Xander stepped behind him. "I think he's busy…"

Xander nodded. "You're right. I should hope so…" The stake plunged into the vampire's heart before he had a chance to react, and he vanished in a silent burst of ash.

"Come on, Buffy, finish it…" muttered Xander as he fought with the stuck door handle.

The door gave, to allow Xander a view of the Grand Hall, complete with duelling Vampire Master and Slayer, and…

…an open Acathla. Didn't Buffy see that?

Angelus' eyes flashed, as Willow's spell succeeded, and he sank to his knees, just as Buffy rose to strike. She faltered.

"Angel?" she asked in a small voice.

"Buffy?" Angel asked, "what's… what's happened?"

Buffy fell to her knees as well, and embraced her lover returned to her. "Shh… it's alright, Angel… it's alright…"

Xander stared in horror as Acathla's portal continued to open. "Buffy!" he screamed, "Acathla!"

Buffy looked up from her lovers embrace, and her eyes widened in fear. "Angel?"

Angel hung his head, fear and disgust in himself flowing of him in waves. "I… I've got to go… my blood opened it… my blood closes it…" He stood slowly, and made his way toward the vortex. The event horizon lapped eagerly at the world it was trying to consume.

Xander had reached him. "This is all your fault!" He hit Angel in the face, who did nothing to fight back. Guilt is a truly terrible thing. Buffy, however, did not take Xander's perceived attack of her boyfriend well at all.

"He's Angel again, Xander! Why can't you just be happy for me?!"

Xander looked at her sadly. "Because if you got horizontal with him once, it'll happen again, even if you don't mean to."

Buffy's eyes widened in shock and rage at Xander's betrayal. "You BASTARD!" Buffy screamed, slugging Xander as hard as she could.

Right toward Acathla.

Xander grabbed vainly for anything that would stop his fall backwards, and got a handful of Angel's shirt, which tore in his grip.

Buffy and Angel both watched, horrified, as Xander fell into Acathla's vortex. Buffy rushed forward, trying to save him, but Xander twisted out of her grasp as she moved toward him.

As Xander vanished, the vortex closed with an audible inrush of air. Buffy slid along the floor of the Grand Hall, and halted suddenly when she reached the now silent and closed Acathla.

Angel stood, looking at his torn shirt. "It… it had my blood on it…"

He looked at Buffy, who was crying against the statue, and saw only the final moments of Xander as he fell into the thing Angelus had opened.

Mouthed words that Angel was sure that Buffy had not seen echoed in his mind. Xander's final instruction to his greatest foe.

"Prove me wrong."

*