Chapter Twelve

Another Minute

"Come before us, lower being."

"What have you brought us?"

"Nothing." I intoned

"You come before us, you a mere mortal, with no gift?"

"I've been your damn champion since I was fifteen. That is your damn gift." I stood my ground. I had never once been to the Oracles. I didn't even know they existed up until Angel had mentioned it to me sometime a long long time ago. But here I stood now because I knew that they were the only ones with enough power to fix this. To make things right.

"You're the Slayer." The female said. It wasn't a question, it wasn't a statement. It was just three words strung together.

"Slayers do not come before us. We do not serve your kind."

"My kind? My kind! I'm out there every single day, protecting your people day in day out. How the hell can you tell me that you don't serve my kind?"

"Slayers are only one part in the cosmic balance. You are no more then a pawn."

I starred at them in disbelief. They were saying this so matter of factly that it was beginning to scare me. "Fine. I want you to remember that I'm no more then your pawn when in a couple month the world almost gets sucked into hell. Or maybe when a homemade synthesized monster wants to kill little boys. Or wait, I'll do you one better. How about when the god Glory comes here to our realm and tries to take over. Let's see how much of a pawn I am when this all goes down." I seethed.

They looked at me. Not a single emotion playing across their faces. "You are not the slayer of our realm."

"Ding ding ding. We have a winner." I don't know what it is about the bronzed faces of these two. Maybe it's the fact that they're working for the higher ups. The same higher ups that have cosmically screwed with my life for as long as I can remember. I don't know and I really don't care. Right now I have the perfect opportunity to show my feelings towards them and I'm not about to sit back and be nice about it.

"So the stars tell the truth. You have been brought back."

"Why?"

"That we cannot disclose. It is for you to figure out."

"No. Sorry. Doesn't work that way. Tell me what the hell I'm doing here."

They looked up to the heavens for some sort of answer but obviously it wasn't the one I wanted. "We are not permitted to tell you."

"Oh yeah?" I pulled out a dagger. "What if I make you permitted?"

The woman smiled. "You can't kill us. We are beyond you."

"Way I hear it, you die later on in life. So what stops me from taking you out now?"

"The future." They started circling me. "You kill us now then the aid we will give in the future is lost, plunging the world into darkness even earlier then before."

"You couldn't possibly know what's going to happen."

"We're divine. We see all before it ever comes close to happening. We know of the future you speak of."

"Yeah? Well if your all divine and all that shit, then why the hell didn't you know who I was?"

"We control and view the fates of many realities. They tend to blur at times. But we know of our death. It is foretold, as of your future also. We know what will happen if you change the future. All that you have worked for will be erased."

I threw the dagger, digging it into the nearest wall. I knew they were right but it still didn't keep me from venting any. "What does it matter? Me being here has already got to change about half a dozen important events in the next year and a half alone. If I stay in this realm I'm not going to make the same mistakes I did once. Do you really think that I'll sleep with Angel in a couple weeks? Go through all that pain and torture again? If you don't help me out right now I'll screw up your little cosmic balance."

"You can't." They both said it simply and in unison.

"The realm you are in does not exist." The man said quietly.

Those simple words hit me with blind force. If this realm didn't exist then that meant that everything surrounding me was fake. The man and woman before me was fake. My life right now suddenly ceased to exist.

"You mortals and your narrow ways." My head snapped up at the woman's tone. "Just because your realm doesn't' exist doesn't mean we don't. By entering into our chamber you have ascended your earthly realm and walked into ours. We control all realms of the past present and futre. Even the ones that are non existent are under our powers."

"Yeah. You mind explaining how that one works."

"Your mortal brain is too small and weak to process it."

Did the Powers That Be just insult me? Moving on I started in again. "How do I get back?"

"The ring. It is the path you must take."

"But you said so yourself. My realm that I'm in doesn't exist. I have no ways of getting that ring because it doesn't exist."

"It exists in your realm."

I starred at them wanting for all the world just to scream. Instead I settled for running a hand through my already messy hair. "So I get the ring, I can go home."

The woman cocked her head to the side, genuinely interested at what had just come out of my mouth. "Is that what you consider it? The future is now your home?"

I never really thought of it that way. My home I had always considered to be in Sunnydale. That's where my friends and family were… was, and that to me would always be home. But then why did I want to get back to the future so much? What was so important for me there that I now considered it my home?

"He is." It was a whispered comment from who knows which oracle. But it was still out in the open. He in so many ways made the future my home for me. I don't know how seeing as we were fighting constantly up until a little while ago. But somehow in all that time he had made it my home. Gave me a place to hold onto in life.

"Just tell me how to get back." It was a sound of defeat to their ears, but a sound of consent to mine. I needed to side with them, I needed to work with them. My petty vengeance against the people that screwed with my life for so long suddenly didn't seem all that important anymore. Now it was just important that I got back home to Angel. That I killed Leon and made the future somewhere that my friend's great great great great grandchildren could look forward to. Where Dawn and her little girls death would be avenged.

"As we have said before. The ring is your path."

"How am I supposed to get it?"

"You already have it." A weight suddenly fell in my pocket. Reaching inside I pulled out a little green ring with a golden lining. "Slip the ring on at midnight and you'll be back to the place you need to be."

"That's it. No loopholes or consequences? You're just going to give me the ring with no charge?"

"Consider this a payment for all your future troubles."

And it was enough. Sending me back. Helping me home was all I needed. I'm not saying I won't ever cuss out the PTB ever again. I know I will. But right now it's enough.

"Thank you." I turned to leave with absolute sincerity. I didn't want to stick around. I didn't feel like questioning anymore. I felt like getting home. But the foggy misty…. whatever the hell that thing was that brought me through here, wasn't appearing. Turning back I was about to question them. But then I saw it.

"He loves you. More than life itself." The woman said and with a wave of a hand a past memory started.

"Mmm, this is a dream. You're human for like a minute and already there is Cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip in the fridge."

"God, I love food."

"Food is good."

The scenes played out before my eyes, causing it all to painfully come back to me. The words more than life itself echoed in my ears.

"It's a good sound. Thump-thump. Thump-thump."

"It feels pretty amazing."


"I'm so glad we didn't logic ourselves out of this. We'll make it work, right?"


"We will."

My hand went to my mouth covering the sob that was already building in my throat. Somewhere in the back in my mind the knowledge of what came next was there, I just couldn't recall it until the images started blurring together to form the next one. The most painful ones.

"Don't you want to wake the girl?"

"Not for the world."

A smile. It was faint and yet it was there. The mere thought of me just lying in the other room made that smile grace his lips. Not the fact that he was human, not the fact that he could finally taste chocolate, the fact that I was with him is what made him smile

"You. You alone will carry the memory of this day. - Can you carry that burden?"

The female oracle looked down at the ground knowing full well the reaction I was to make. She almost felt guilty it seemed for having to show me this. But she knew as well as I did that it was only right. It was a part of my past that seemed to be erased from my mind and I needed it back. She herself had said that everything was predestined. I was meant to see this. No matter how painful the next parts were to watch.

"I'm guessing that expression isn't because they were all out of fresh OJ at the deli. - What happened?"

"Nothing happened. - I just.."


"Where have you been?"

A tear slipped down my cheek. I already knew the answer.

"I went to see the Oracles. I asked them to turn me back."

"What? - Why?"

"Because more than ever I know how much I love you."

I saw my image backing away. The pain just as real now as it had been all those years ago.


"No. No, you didn't."

"And if I stayed mortal one of us would wind up dead, maybe both of us. You heard what Mohra said."

Tears came unbidden. It felt like he was leaving me all over again. Once again he was making the decision of what I thought at the time was the world taking priority over me. But now I knew that all it was, was him trying to protect me. To make my life last just a little bit longer. And what do they do? Kill me not even two years later.

"The Oracles are giving us back the day, turning back time, so I can kill Mohra before his blood makes me mortal."


"When?"


"Another minute."


"A minute? No. No, it's not enough time!"

I shook my head backing away from my crying form, my sob finally bursting though.


"We don't have a choice. It's done."


"How am I supposed to go on with my life knowing what we had? What we could have had?"

"You won't. No one will know but me."

"Everything we did."


"It never happened."

"It did. It did. I know it did!"

I reached my hand out as if to touch that once beating heart one more time.

I felt your heart beat."

And I fell. My legs couldn't support me anymore. Once again fate was ripping us apart. We had everything we ever wanted in life and it was being taken away for reasons that neither of us wanted to understand. My heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest as his tears fell down and that endless kiss that lasted only seconds took place. I almost could feel his lips on mine. Feel the desperation. I clung onto him for dear life. Images of sending him to hell flashing inside my head, recalling all the times this had happened. Most of all though, I remember the look in his eyes.

For twenty four hours he had been with me. Free of the curse, free of his demons and torments and I knew right then he wouldn't have traded it for anything else in the world. Those twenty four hours, though brief, meant everything to him. That was his redemption at the time. And right now, as I thought of the man I had left in the future I realized that he was still holding onto that day in his heart. Still holding onto me and that dream that one day we'd get the fairytale, we'd get the Hollywood style romance. Nothing had changed. We were still in love, probably more then we had ever been.

"No. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget."

I told him once that we would fight together. And we will.

"Buffy, where did you go?" Willow rushed up to me and gave me a hug, and the painful truth that none of this was real just bit into me.

"I had a little business to take care of." I pulled away looking at each and every one of my friends in the library. I was going to miss them, but it was time for me to go. Slowly I pulled out the ring, my prize.

"You got it. How the hell did you get it?" Xander smiled in half shock and half awe.

"I told you guys. Someone owed me a favor." I just smiled.

"So how does this work? How is this little ring supposed to get you home?"

"Believe it or not. I just have to slip it on." They looked at me not really believing the simplicity of it all.

"When?" Angel asked for the first time. I had to fight back the tears upon seeing him. He didn't know yet though. He wasn't faced with the decision to give up humanity for me yet. And I wasn't going to tell him. He had two weeks before his life came crashing down. I had to let him enjoy it while he still could. Before the light and passion in his eyes burned out.

His question resounded in my head and I almost laughed at the irony of it all. "Another minute." Not giving them a chance to even voice their opinions I hugged Willow. "Bye Wills. I'll miss you."

She smiled through her tears. "Something says I'll be seeing you."

I nodded. "Xander, don't let anyone tell you you're not important. You're the most important of us all."

"Oh God. I die in the future don't I?"

I laughed and hugged him tightly. "Giles," I sighed and leaned up to him whispering my adoration for him into his ear, along with a few other things. Leaving Angel for my last goodbye as the sound of the bell started to ring, counting down the amount of time I had left before I would go back.

What was I supposed to say to the man before me though? His life was just about to go downhill. He suffered so much in the future. I almost wanted to stay to protect the look of protruding happiness his eyes held. But I knew it would make no difference. They only existed as long as I was here.

"I'll never leave you." He said, pulling me into his strong embrace. "Tell the future me I promised." I smiled, allowing one tear, just one, to run down the side of my check. He pulled away from me and took the ring from my hand and before I knew what he was doing he slipped it on. "I love you." And it all went black.

My head was pounding by the time I opened my eyes. "What the…?" I half expected to wake up in the alley. Not here in the bedroom that Angel and I currently shared. And I definitely didn't expect to see him sitting next to me on the bed, his body wrapped around mine as he held me tightly in his embrace.

"Angel?" I choked out as I looked up at him. I don't think I've ever been more afraid in my life. I needed him. I knew this and yet there still might be nothing I could do. His eyes were open in a flash though as his name finally reached his ears. "Hi,"

He starred at me dumbly, not quite believing that I was here. "Buffy… I…" He pulled me tighter against him. Holding me to his chest hardly allowing me to move. But somehow I didn't care. I was back and I was with him. Nothing was going to change that. Three hundred years couldn't change that.

I didn't even know I was crying until he started kissing away the falling tears. "I love you. I swear I'll never leave you. God… Buffy."

All I could do was laugh. What a picture we made. Both of us crying, our tears mingling with one another's. "Is that a promise?"

Pulling away he looked me dead in the eye, leaning his forehead against mine. "I swear." Gently he touched his lips to mine, sharing our first kiss in what seemed like forever. It quickly deepened to something more, each one of us pouring all the love that we held for each other into that one single kiss. Tomorrow we could die. Tomorrow this all could end and my story would stop here. But right now? Right now life was perfect.