Buffy:
There, I've said it. For the greatest part of my life, I've been reliving my old life over and over again, questioning myself. Was I insane? Why was I seeing these things? Nothing seemed real anymore – how could things change so much? – so I didn't interact with anything. Sure I carried out mundane tasks when asked, but I always felt as if I was floating. These people around me, some of them treat me as if I'm not even there. It made it easier for me somehow. And then he came back.
Spike's been here forever, pretty much, but he never commented on my appearance. He never even looked at me funny, odd if he and I had truly been as intimate as he likes to claim. But Angel… Angel was different. He shows up out of nowhere and he sees who I am, begs me to recognise him. He was the first person that forced me to become a part of the world again. He saved me. It wasn't the first time, and I doubt that it will be the last.
But now that I've told him – and Matt, who's looked out for the false me since birth – and now that my tears have subsided, I need to know how he'll deal with the knowledge. What will become of us now? Before I can speak, he whispers into my hair "Oh Buffy" then bends his neck and kisses me, just softly. How long have I been waiting for him to do that again?
"Oh, Buffy," he says again. "No one could ever make me happy but you."
"Then how…?"
"It was a spell – a cure, I suppose – designed to break the curse. I think they wanted me to destroy the world, and instead the humanity I'd been nurturing affected me. I couldn't rest until I was cleansed of it all. I killed Faith, turned on my friends, even chasing them to Sunnydale. And once there, I saw you. You rekindled my passion, and I knew, more than anything else, that I had to have you. So, the game began again, and it continued until Spike staked me. I'm so sorry." He pulls me close again, and I'm lost in the furious beating of his heart and the warmth of his skin. Still, there's something he's keeping from me. For now, I'll keep quiet. In time, perhaps we'll trust each other enough to dispense with such secrets.
After a while, he asks me,
"What now?" I look into his deep, dark eyes and smile.
"Now? Now we save the world."
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Edward:
This was unexpected. Angel and Eve – well, I guess that's Buffy now – walked in on the meeting. Both had clearly been crying, which was odd. Matt was behind them, his face frozen into a ghastly, surprised stare. Everyone looked up at them, the business at hand suddenly forgotten, and as one we asked what had happened. And, to everyone's amazement, it was Eve – Buffy – that answered.
So now there is a silence descended on the room as each of us tries to come to grips with this news. Angel and Buffy, who are coping with it much better than everybody else, are remaining quiet for our sakes. After a time, I realise that we've been here for too long. The clock is ticking, and we have to put this to one side while we deal with more pressing matters.
"Okay," I say, firmly enough to make all the people in the room turn. "We don't have a lot of time left, and we still need a plan. We need to get into BC&N, disrupt the meeting and prevent a union and get our people…" Suddenly Buffy interrupts.
"No," she says. She has certainly become more assertive now that she's found her voice. "We tried that already and it didn't work. No, we need a different plan."
"What are you suggesting?"
"We amass our forces, and attack. Wipe out every one of them." Silence. Then somebody says
"Are you insane? That's suicide."
"So is sneaking in and out. The difference is my way could work. We're going to declare war." There's some more silence, though this time I'm sure people are thinking about what's been said.
"We'd need help," someone points out.
"And we would need to know exactly where in the building it's taking place."
"Perhaps I can be of some assistance." We all spin around and there standing in the doorway to the shop floor is the last person I wanted to see.
Jericho.
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Jericho:
They don't look pleased to see me. Understandable. I've tried to kill some of them so often that they'd naturally find it hard to trust me. But I have to make them trust me, because I've just realised something: I'm on the wrong side. These people have a cause. They fight for that cause, but most of all, they fight with honour. The people I work for, they've never fought with honour. For example, I'm in the middle of a duel and they shoot the person that I'm fighting, with wooden bullets no less. I don't think these people would ever do that, and it took the death of one of them to make me understand.
"What are you doing here?" says the oldest-looking one of them, the man I think is called Edward.
"I've come to join you."
"Oh, yeah? Why should we believe you?"
"I know I've done some terrible things," I tell them. "But I don't like to kill people if it isn't necessary and I don't want the world to end any more than you do. A friend of mine once told me that the only way to feel good about yourself is to stand up for what you believe in. To fight the good fight, whatever way you can. Well now it's time for me to take a stand." Some of them don't believe me, fine, but Angel is looking at me in wonderment.
"You're Jason," he says, more a statement than a question. I smile.
"Yes, the only childe of a vampire with a soul."
"Spike said you were just like any other vampire."
"Not all souls are perfect, mine just took this long to do what was right. Let's call it… an epiphany." He smiles and nods.
"I guess there's a vampire with a soul for every End of Days. How about that?"
So, begrudgingly and at Angel's constant urging, they allow me to remain for the meeting and to explain in great detail what I know of the building.
"There are innocent people inside," I remind them. "They don't know what's going on there any more than most people on the streets know about demons. I don't want them hurt."
"They won't be," Buffy promises. "As long as they don't try to fight us, we'll leave them alone." We're on our own now, Buffy, Angel, Edward, Matt and myself, though Matt does little except staring into space.
"You know that a lot of your people are going to die, don't you?"
"Yes." Nobody seems cheered at all by that sentiment.
"And we can't do this alone, even with your entire band, we'll be slaughtered as soon as we approach the walls."
"We'll get reinforcements from other fighters world-wide," says Edward. "We can increase our numbers a hundredfold in a matter of days."
Believe it or not, for all the similarites between this chapter and certain events in Season 7, I did come up with all of this on my own (before Season 7 had even been released).