Author's Note: This short here is actually a variation of one of my earlier stories, Far Beyond the Dark, which, in turn, was a variation of an original story I wrote some years earlier. The basic plot (as such) is that some people are around to observe the end of the universe. I always seem to write this story (or a variation of it) when I'm a funky mood. Anyway, in Far Beyond the Dark those people were Drusilla, Angel, and Spike. In this story here it's other people.

Enjoy!

The End of All Things
(X-over with Highlander and Neil Gaiman's Sandman)

The landscape, such as it was, consisted only of ice and rock. Not a single trace of life was to be found, not even a grass blade. The atmosphere was pretty much nonexistent, at least as far as breathable gasses went. Not that there was anyone left who needed to breathe.

The sky above was pitch-black except for the single dim star slowly descending in the West. It would be the final sunset for this world. There would be no dawn come tomorrow.

"Any regrets?"

The question was not spoken, for there was no air to carry it. Even if there had been, both the speaker and the listener had long ago forgotten how to use spoken language. There was no one around to speak to anymore except each other and they had long ago transcended the need for words between them.

"Enough to fill several life times," was the answer. "Still, I guess if I could live my life again I would do most things the same way as before. You?"

"Oh, I have mountains of regrets, dear child. It's just that I have learned to leave them all behind ages ago."

"Will you never stop with the ‘dear child' thing? I'm barely any younger than you."

"5,000 years."

"Like I said, barely."

They were an odd pair, the two of them. One was a man, tall and thin, his lips always carrying a curious mixture of a smile and a sneer. The other was a woman, barely out of her teens, small and fragile-looking.

"Why did you do it?" the woman asked the man.

"What?"

"Why did you spend all of your remaining power keeping our sun alive this long?"

The man got a whimsical look on his face, then smiled. "I had run out of other things to do with the power of the Price. Besides, if we're to boldly stride into the darkness, I want our own sun to light our way as long as it can."

An odd pair indeed. Eons ago the man had won something called the Game, acquiring near-infinite power in the process. Some would have used it to set themselves up as God. Others might have used it to aid their fellow men. Not he, though. He had continued his life almost exactly as before, using the power only when it suited his own whims, the only thing he really wanted was survival.

The woman, on the other hand, had not won anything. No, she had lost something. Eons ago, even before the man had won his Game, she had traversed the boundaries of life and death several times over. And in the end she found that the ability to die now eluded her completely. The man and his former kin, the ones he had killed to win the Game, had boasted of their immortality. She, though, was truly immortal, for not even cutting off her head had managed to kill her. She knew. She had tried it several times.

Now, though, millions of years after the very race that had spawned them had fallen to dust, these two immortals were facing the one death even they could not escape from. The death of all things. The eternal dark.

Today was the day that Entropy devoured the final erg of energy remaining in the universe, making it a black and frozen place, now and forever.

The woman flexed her hands, feeling the cold already creeping through her ancient bones. There had been a time she had tried everything imaginable to finally gain the death she longed for, but nothing had worked. Now, with the universe itself coming to an end, she wondered whether she would finally know rest.

"How long do you figure?" she asked the man.

"Maybe another hour. I...," for the first time in all the years she had known him he hesitated.

"I know," she just said, knowing his thoughts. "You will get your death, Methos. Even the energies of the Price can not survive final Entropy. But me... who knows?"

"Buffy, I know how much you long for this. If I could trade places with you..."

"Just hold me, okay?"

Methos nodded, taking the tiny blonde woman into his arms. For eons after the end of all life they had been a world all unto themselves. They had been lovers, enemies, friends, and strangers to each other, simply because there was no one else left to fill any of these rolls for them.

Now it was over. Methos would die, for the energies sustaining him, the power of the Quickening, was finally spent. But Buffy? Would the end of the universe be the final out for the one Death refused to take? Well, there was but one way to find out.

No more words were needed between them. And when Methos' arms grew cold and lifeless around her, Buffy gently laid him down to rest, closing his eyes.

"Goodbye, my love," she whispered, bestowing a final kiss onto his cold brow. "If God is kind I will see you on the other side."

In the sky above the sun flickered and then died, the last light in the universe now snuffed as well. Darkness closed in around Buffy, total and everlasting. No more sights, no more sounds, no feeling except the cold.

Then... movement.

"Time to go, Buffy," a female voice said.

Light came from an unknown source, showing her a pale young woman with black hair, black clothes, and an Ankh symbol around her neck. Buffy knew her very well. She had argued with her, threatened her, even gone down on her knees before her, begging her to take her. Nothing had ever worked.

"I can finally go?" Buffy asked, not quite daring to believe it.

"The universe is over," Death said with a smile. "Now it's time to put up the chairs, turn off the lights, and lock the place behind me as I leave."

Offering her hand, she smiled at Buffy. "A long time ago I entered into a contract never to take you. It has finally expired."

Crying tears of joy, Buffy finally went into Death's arms and together they left.

THE END

PS: I've started a new original story, a sci-fi serial. If you're interested, take a look at the Adventures of Sandra, Scion of Veloria, to be found on my homepage (I'd put on a link, but won't let me. Just look up my homepage on my profile page and look under Original Fiction)