A/N: Here it is, the conclusion to Progeny. It's been a long time coming. I had a lot of personal business pop up. Still, this is done and it's a little existential or whatever. I hope you enjoy.
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Ever After is a very long time
The rain pelted down. Uncommonly dense grey clouds blanketed the Californian sky. Even under the heavy scents of rain and wet earth there was an undertone of death. A common theme in cemetaries.
The mourners stood huddled together, their heads bowed with grief. Tear streaked faces stared blankly at the heavy oak coffin. Rain soaked their clothes, sapping wrmth and life from their limbs but not a single one of them even contemplated taking their umbrella away from sheltering the casket. She had always hated the rain.
The minister's words could not be heard above the poudning rain and howling wind. The sense of isolation was oppresive, each person trapped within their own pain and loss.
Thunder roared on the horizon and the wind quieted, the slowed to a drizzle. The minister's deep, melodic voice was suddenly audible.
"While those we love pass on, our love for them remains behind – an indelible mark on the lives of all who knew her. Her legacy shall live as long as our memory. As long as our love."
The merest echo of infectious, joyous laughter could be heard amidst the thunderous return of the storm. More than one bittersweet smile crossed a pale, wind-bitten face.
XXX
Long after the funeral had ended, two stood at the foot of the grave. Blond hair was plastered to their skulls but not even the torrential rain could mask his terrible grief. Hollow blue eyes stared sightlessly, ignoring the stinging wind.
His pale hand gripped the tanned hand of his partner with bone-crushing strength, a grasp that was returned tightly. A gaping hole sat in his chest, aching to be filled with dancing eyes and warm words. Fragments of images filled his mind. A smile. Tiny hands. Blonde hair gleaming in the sun.
Such was the cost of immortality. No, the price of humaniy. An eternity of freedom had once stretched before him endlessly, near infinite possibilities. He'd been able to slide from one day to the next seamlessly, life nothing more than the hunt, the kill, the fight. Time and again he'd been given chances to return to that life.
Instead he'd tied himself to humans, transient creatures, their lives not even a blink of Eternity's eye, less than a heartbeat. To trade such fragments of joy for the promise of lifetimes of pain, loss, despair. Ten, twenty, fifty years of happiness was less than a feather to the mountain of eternity.
It didn't have to be that way. He and she could simply leave. Spend eternity together. Travel the world. Revel in their freedom, their eternal youth, one another. It'd be unfair of the others to ask them to stay, to stand this pain, to suffer each death, to feel. He stared at the white marble of the tombstone and the careful engraving on it.
Caitlin Roselyn Barclay
A True Miracle
It would be so simple to disappear. Get away from the Hellmouth, away from the fight. Bury themselves in the faceless masses. They'd done their part. More than their part. They'd both died for this fight. They didn't owe anybody anything. They deserved a chance to grasp whatever slice of heaven that their kind, killers, could hope to get. To just... be free.
"Better head back, love. The others'll be waiting."
He had always been love's bitch.
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A/N: And there it is. Very good odds I won't be writing any more fanfic for a while although I will be writing some. I'll be attempting to write a seventy-five thousand original fiction in thirty days. Hopefully the experience will help me get a handle on my writing. I still intend to come back to fanfiction but it will not be for a time. Probably not as long as it's been since my last update (which was some four months ago) but a while yet. If you are interested in seeing how my original piece is going, there will be a link to my fictionpress account where it will be hosted. Posting starts on the first of April. I hope you enjoyed this story.