Buffy's heart was so overflowing with the will to win that she was terrified that at any moment it would spill out and the unknown spring from which this inspiration sprang would dry.
Swing for swing she danced with the devil in the pale spotlight of a glowing moon back and forth across the silhouetted hill top. She punched with a grunt hard at his head and, although ducked, she saw the demon was off balanced; with a follow up blow she blew him into the ground.
"There. Satisfied now Mr...what was your name again?"
"Well now...seems like you got something again."
As he was picking himself up Buffy punched him again to the same effect as before,
"No. You don't get to be all, 'Finally the real you appears guy'. You want to know why? I'm pissed. And more importantly, I'm pissed at you."
"Well that's amazing." The Demon said with wonder as he picked himself up again. Buffy stood by this time, her flippant smile strained with the lingering emotional pain, "I feel scared. I've been ignored so long I've forgotten what it was like to be in the thick of life. To have your life depend on the moods of those around you...to be apart of something."
"Yeah, you know what? I don't care."
"Don't go thinking because you finally got yourself a little emotion that your fights will be magically won. I'm still strong...maybe stronger than you."
"Still not caring."
They began to fight again and although seemingly equally matched Buffy managed to grab the Demon's arm, stretch it behind his back, and snatch the yellow gem off of his finger. She pushed him away and started tossing the ring up and down in her hand like a black and white movie gangster would toss a coin,
"You know, for a long time now I've been uncertain. Am I a good person? Do I have a good purpose in this world? Is there any of the old Buffy left in me?"
The Demon made a lunged for the ring but his attempt was tainted with desperation and unthought out; Buffy punched him in the face, knocking him back,
"But that doesn't matter, at least not right now. Because for right this instance I know who I am, and you showed me."
"Yeah, and how'd I do that?"
Buffy looked over at Xander and smiled, her heart warmed by gratitude and joy and love and all those wonderful things friendship brings,
"Because you're the darkness, and I'm the Slayer." She held the ring in front of her face and crushed it with a clench of her fist, "Willow, do it."
Willow, sensing this outcome had set Xander on the ground. She said some words in latin and the Demon became engulfed in a type of pale, yellow glow; it began to expand around him like a bubble slowly.
"Hah!" He looked down at it amazed, "I can't move. This is going to kill me isn't it?" Buffy looked at him with an expression of strained toleration, "I'm really terrified." The yellow bubble began to creep above his torso, "I don't feel wasted though. It feels...right. Is it because I'm dying it feels right or why I died? I'm sorry for some of the measures I stooped to, but I'm glad no serious harm was caused, I hope you believe that. Ah, it's at my chest, should I angle my head to talk longer? I've never really had much to say and now that I'm dying I feel like there's so much more to say! An infinite amount of words to absolve me of all unresolved emotions! Oh well. I don't suppose I could pester one of you into telling my tell? Horatio! Horatio! ...No? Wrong crowd? Oh well, no shame on you, I probably indulge myself too much in those things. Buffy, I hope you forgive me."
She watched on, oddly moved.
"Oh well. Come for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man."
"I've heard that one before." She said, not unsympathetically, and stepped closer to him.
"Yeah...But the tragedy of that line is I'm no man at all."
The Bubble had reached his head and closed at the top, freezing him in yellow. Buffy walked forward, withdrew her fist, and tearing up, shoved the fist through the bubble, raining it to the ground in a hail of yellow.