A/N I just read through the last 3 chapters and realized how many typos I didn't catch while proofreading. And While I'm not going to go back and fix those I will try to look closer at the upcoming chapters.

Chapter 4

The world was made of dark and fire. Survivors walked across the ashes and coal flinching from the heat radiating from the ground beneath their feet. Buffy stood on the moon and looked down at the place she was supposed to protect. In the crater that was Sunnydale her tombstone was the only thing that remained standing. Vines grew around it reaching fora sun that no longer existed. Soon they would die. Soon everything would die. Angel stood in front of her tombstone, holding a dozen roses.

Buffy stood beside him.

He was no longer Angel. He was everyone she had ever known.

They were in her bedroom and he was holding Mr. Gordo. And he was her Mom.

"Violence will never solve anything."

And she was fighting. Fighting her. Fighting him. Fighting everyone she had ever known.

She was in her coffin screaming.

She was making love to Angel.

The moon exploded. Light shattered the darkness.

Buffy woke, breathing hard. She was in her room in Angel's hotel. She pulled her knees into her body and cried.

Angel found her still in that position the coming morning. Last night had been hard for them both. Sharing the bitterness that they had developed may not have been the best idea. Both had gone to sleep quiet and sullen, angry at the other's accusations.

Buffy looked up from her knees. Her eyes and nose puffy with tears. "Angel."

"Buffy."

"You really thought that?"

"I didn't mean to, but it was always there in the back of my mind."

"I never loved them Angel. I tried to. God help me, I tried so hard. But I couldn't. I loved you. I'm sorry you felt betrayed. I didn't mean to forget."

He stood just barely in the room, ready to leave if she asked him to. She had every right after what he had told her last night. How he had felt betrayed by her loving Riley, loving Spike. How he had hurt when she hadn't trusted him to take care of Faith. And so much more pain that he hadn't even known he felt until he told her. And she had let him tell her, she hadn't yelled back or ran away. She had sat there and listened. And when he had finished she had asked his forgiveness. His. He had never given forgiveness before, no one had asked that of the vampire, for he had never deserved to be on that side of mercy. And he had remained quiet, not knowing what to say. She had sat in the silence for what seemed forever. And than she had smiled and finally she spoke, "Maybe sometime soon? I guess it's my turn, now, huh?"

She had yelled at him. She had cried to him. She spoke softly now telling the story of pain caused by love. And he was guilty of all of it, she did not hold Angelus against him, the deeds she told him of were the ones that he, with a soul, had done to her. And he was sorry. And he told her so. And she said to him, "I know. You always were. But you did it anyway."

And they had left to their separate bedrooms. And they had cried.

Buffy spoke interrupting Angels thoughts of yesterday, "I had a dream last night. Do you remember when I came to your apartment and told you about my dream and you told me that it didn't mean anything? This dream felt the same way. So real. And it was bad Angel, really bad."

"Do you want to tell the others about it?"

"Not really." She looked sheepishly at him, "I'd rather not tell anybody, including you, just yet." She shrugged, "You can leave now," she gestured at her state of dress.

Angel smiled, "Not like there's anything I haven't seen before."

Buffy glared at him and he quickly left.

Buffy bounded through the doors with two pizza boxes in her hands, "So what have we figured out so far?"

Willow looked up from her laptop, "Umm . . ."

Xander contributed proudly, "It's called the End of Days."

Giles clearly wanted to hit Xander, but refrained and instead said, "We really haven't figured out much as of yet. We've found several references in almost every prophetical book we have, but none of them say anything other than its name."

Buffy placed the pizzas on the coffee table, "So, basically, what Xander said."

Giles glared at her, "Yes."

Angel came in from the basement, "I got a couple more books for you, but I don't think they'll say anything differently."

Giles tried to look optimistic, failing severely as he said, "Well, we must try anyways mustn't we?"

"Nothing. Goddamn nothing." Giles through the ancient books down on the table showing as little respect for them as his high-schoolers once had.

"Maybe tomorrow Giles. Maybe we'll find something new tomorrow." Buffy touched him lightly on the shoulder, trying to comfort him. They were the only two left in the room, Xander and Willow having gone to explore the great LA and Angel having left to patrol.

He sighed, "I'd doubt it Buffy. I'm beginning to doubt that we'll find anything in books. I think this will be one of those apocalypses we have to figure out without the guidance of ancient prophecies."

"That's okay. At least they don't say I'm going to die. That's always a good sign. Right?"

Giles looked sadly at her. "Right." It was in the same voice that he had told her that growing up was terribly easy to do and that all bad guys wore black hats and that all good guys wore white hats. She had called him a liar than. She just stared back silently at him this time.

TBC