"She seems to be doing fine," Angel commented as they walked away.
"For now. And the Council will send another Watcher to take my place," Merrick continued. "But if it were that simple, the Powers That Be would not have sent me here."
"Why are you here, Merrick?" Angel asked the obvious question.
"A Slayer is a creature of destiny, Angel. Without a Watcher, she will be drawn to where she is needed. She will subconsciously seek out the darkest evil."
"Sunnydale," Angel realized. "The Hellmouth."
"Your old friends, the Order of Aurelius, have set up shop there. She will go there. And she will face the evil that is in there. And she will die."
Angel thought about that. He knew that all Slayers died eventually. But for whatever reason, he didn't want Buffy to die.
"What do you want me to do?" Angel asked.
"Go to the Hellmouth. Help her. Become her ally."
Ally. It would be difficult to think of the Slayer that way. For two hundred years, the Slayer had been a source of fear.
How could he ally with a nightmare?
"OK, so we'll come in together from the east entrance," Buffy pointed to a spot on the map.
"Good idea," Angel nodded. "It should be shaded from the sun."
"Happy Birthday, Buffy!" Xander called as he and Oz came into the library, carrying a long crate over their shoulders.
"Hope you like the color," Oz added as they set it down. Angel smashed the clasp with his hand and opened it.
Buffy looked into the box. "This is good."
Jenny stood in the doorway. "Something I can do?"
Buffy looked at her. "Help Willow and Cordelia with the grenades."
"What grenades?" she asked, confused.
"These grenades!" Willow grunted as she and Cordelia carried another box in.
"Seriously, I think these things are made out of lead," Cordelia complained.
"Get the smoke grenades," Buffy ordered. She looked back into the box. "Xander, can you show me how to work this thing?"
"Sure."
"Crossbows!" Giles came in, clutching several crossbows. "Make way for crossbows!"
"Ah," Oz smiled.
Giles handed out crossbows to everyone except Buffy and Angel, who each took swords. Buffy stepped into the middle of the room.
"Everyone clear on the plan?"
They all nodded.
"Then let's do this."
"I am ready," the Judge finally announced.
"About time!" Spike picked up an axe. "Get ready, boys. We move at sunset."
Drusilla started whimpering. "No, no, no, no!" She collapsed to the ground.
Spike rushed to her side. "What is it, Ducks?"
"It is too late. The angel of death is here."
"What?"
Without warning, several objects crashed through the window. Smoke poured out, obscuring the room.
"What is it? What's going on?" Spike roared. Dru stood beside him.
"I'm back," came a voice from the doorway.
"Who's there?" Spike called.
Angel stepped out of the smoke. He was in full vamp face and carried a sword.
"I'm here, Spike."
"You fool," declared the Judge. "No weapon forged can kill me."
"That was then," Buffy replied, standing beside Angel. And then she did something that Spike could never have forseen.
She pulled out a BLOODY ROCKET LAUNCHER!
"This is now."
As Buffy started flipping switches on the BLOODY ROCKET LAUNCHER, Spike dove to the ground, taking Drusilla with him. The Judge merely stood there.
"What does that do?" he asked.
His last words.
A missile streamed forth from the BLOODY ROCKET LAUNCHER, blowing the supposedly-invincible Judge to pieces.
"Alright then," Spike shifted to vamp face, "let's do this the old fashioned way!"
"Very well," Buffy grinned. She lifted her eyes to the ceiling.
"FIRE!" she called.
And then Spike saw it. The smoke grenades had concealed it, while Buffy, Angel, and the BLOODY ROCKET LAUNCHER had distracted him from seeing it.
Buffy's friends were standing in the rafters. Six of them. All with crossbows.
They fired. One hit Drusilla in the chest. By fortune, it missed her heart.
Four other vampires weren't so lucky.
Buffy and Angel charged. One unfortunate minion stood in their way, and was cut down like wheat. There was nothing between them and him.
This was what Spike had wanted. An ultimate showdown with the Slayer, his strength against hers, Drusilla at his side. And then he realized something.
He couldn't win.
Choosing his self-preservation instincts over his bloodlust, Spike grabbed the wounded Drusilla and made for the manhole cover. He hurled his axe at Angel to slow him down. Once inside the sewers, Spike kept running.
It was over.
"Well, that was quick," Cordelia said.
"I didn't expect him to run," Angel gazed at the open manhole. "He must have realized that he couldn't win."
"How could he win?" Xander smirked. "You had a rocket launcher."
"I had more than a rocket launcher, Xander," Buffy replied. "I had friends."
Angel put his arms around Buffy. Inevitably, she kissed her fiancé.
"Do you wanna tell them?" Angel whispered.
"Sure." They turned back to the group. "Um, guys, Angel and I have an announcement."
"We're getting married," Angel smiled.
Willow's squeals of joy drowned out all subsequent conversation.
"Well, this is it," Buffy stood at the open doorway to Angel's home.
"You don't need an invitation anymore, Buffy. It's your home now. You live here."
Buffy tentatively stepped inside. She set her bookbag down by the door, and looked around. Angel followed her gaze to the barebones kitchen. "We'll need to buy real food for you. We'll stop by the supermarket tomorrow."
Buffy nodded. "I'll swing by my house in the morning, pick up my stuff while Mom's at the gallery."
Something was wrong. Angel could hear it in Buffy's voice.
"Buffy, are you okay?"
She broke down completely. Sobbing, crying, she collapsed on the bed.
Angel rushed to his fiancée's side. He cradled her in his arms.
"I miss my mom," she sobbed.
Angel should have seen this coming. His proposal hadn't erased the pain of Buffy's break with her mother. It had given her the strength to put it aside and fight the Judge, but now that the Judge was gone, she was letting go.
There were no words he could think of to comfort her. So he didn't try. He just held her. He held her in his arms until the tears stopped.
"I don't know what I'd do without you, Angel," Buffy whispered.
"Let's never find out," he replied.
They kissed. And once again, they created a island of happiness in a sea of pain.
"Hang on, princess," Spike assured the sleeping Drusilla. "We're almost to Los Angeles."
It had been a harrowing few hours. Spike had wanted out of Sunnydale as fast as possible. So he and Dru had stolen the first car they saw that Spike liked. They would go to Los Angeles, and from there to someplace that didn't have Slayers with BLOODY ROCKET LAUNCHERS. Maybe the other side of the world.
Up ahead, Spike saw a sign that read "YOU ARE NOW ENTERING LOS ANGELES CITY LIMITS". Grinning, he gunned the engine.
It turned out that Los Angeles signs were significantly sturdier than their Sunnydale counterparts.
Supporting Cast:
Seth Green as Oz
Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar
Juliet Landau as Drusilla
James Marsters as Spike
Richard Riehle as Merrick
John Ritter as Ted
Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
Brian Thompson as the Judge
A/N: Thank you all for the reviews. I have to warn you in advance that the next chapter probably won't be out as soon as you'd like. I need to write an outline first.
Also, while it's great to hear that you love what I'm writing so far, I'd like to get some more detailed feedback. Ways I could improve my writing, story ideas you'd like to see, anything. Also, if there were any particular parts you loved, say so, so I know what kind of stuff you like.