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Buffy had just raised her leg to slam a powerful kick into Angelus’ chest when he suddenly screamed, dropping to his knees. One fist rose and clawed at the skin over his still heart, leaving bloody furrows in the flesh as his head rocked back and he gasped in agony.

Buffy opened her connection with Spike, letting him see through her eyes, her knowledge of what was happening making her weak with relief. Angelus’ eyes suddenly glowed with silver light before they faded to chocolate brown, his demon’s mask dropping away. As he slumped to the floor, Buffy stepped slowly forwards.

“Angel?” Her voice was hesitant, her muscles still tensed despite the evidence that the spell had been cast.

The vampire shuddered and twitched on the floor; the pain still radiating from him made her pause, confused. This hadn’t happened the first time around, but she knew they weren’t using the same spell. Gritting her teeth, she crossed her fingers and stepped back. This was an ordeal her sire had to go through without help.

Finally he gave a groan of protest as a strange black mist seeped from his eyes, his nose and even his mouth. It rose in a spiral above him, forming a hovering cloud. The colours shifting across its surface made her nauseous for a moment, before the gas vanished with a sound like a knife tearing wet silk. It made her shiver with disgust even as her demon melted into her human face.

The vampire at her feet stirred. Slowly, painfully so, he struggled to his knees. His eyes, haunted, guilty, confused, rose to meet her own. His mouth trembled in dazed bewilderment, his hands rising. His gaze dropped to the bloody tears in her skin where Angelus had managed to get a blow in, then to the bruise forming on her cheek where a punch had landed on-target.

“Buffy? Wh- what’s happened? Everything’s so mixed-up… What have I done?”

Hardly daring to hope, she ignored Spike’s furious warnings in her head, gently but firmly shutting him out. This was something she had to do alone. Trembling, she took a cautious step forwards.

“Angel?”

She could see the confusion beginning to dissipate in his eyes even as he nodded slowly. Her eyes closed, the sting of tears and the lump in her throat making it hard to think. When she had her emotions firmly under control, she looked down at her former lover. She waited as his memories began filtering back, the trickle soon turning to a roar.

He clutched his head, his beautiful face contorted with pain as the rush of guilt and revulsion slammed into him. His face glowed with heartbreak as he cried, great wracking sobs that made his whole body shake. The despairing eyes, eyes she had once thought held the world, met hers. She saw the pleading in his gaze, the pitiful slump of his body as black misery consumed him. And she understood.

The beautiful, deadly gracefulness of the Spirit Guide walked before her, the silence around her total as she followed trustingly. Settling down on the log, she waited for hours before her eyes drifted closed. Then there was a crackling and her eyes flew open.

The fire hissed and spat as she tensed, afraid but feeling drawn to the primal power of the creature prowling in the shadows beyond the flames. The First Slayer cocked her head, the muddy strips streaking her dark skin glinting in the soft glow of the fire. She heard that eerie, melodic voice as though she were back in the desert.

“Death is your gift.”

“Death…?”

“Is your gift.”

Her own flat denial rang in her ears, the naïveté of her statement making her present self smile wistfully. “I should know, my mother just died. Death is not a gift.”

The First Slayer faded from view, leaving her feeling cold and suddenly, inexplicably, alone. The words hung in her brain, tumbling through her mind over and over again as her refusal to believe them tried to shut them out.

Her eyes opened with newfound clarity as she slowly stepped away from the broken, tortured eyes still boring into her. Her demon face remained hidden away as she smiled softly, all the love she’d felt for Angel once upon a time flooding back to her. Looking down, she met his intense stare with a level one of her own.

“Close your eyes.” Her voice was a gentle, tender whisper.

Relieved, her one-time love did as she asked. Tears of regret and love slipped down her cheeks in a silent tribute to her dream even as she finally let it go. Placing one hand on either side of his head, she bent a left a gentle kiss on his forehead. Her mouth drifted to settle beside his ear.

“Never forget that I loved you.” Her last, tender words seemed loud in the silence that followed as she straightened.

Her grip tightened as she summoned the depleted reserves of her strength. With a strong twist that was as smooth as she could make it, Buffy Summers watched her first love and the last threads of a childhood crumble to dust.

****

Spike waited outside for as long as he could stand. When only silence greeted him, he warily stepped into the doorway, fighting in vain to see through the darkness. “Buffy?” His voice echoed in the small room, the aching worry and fear in his tone just short of panic.

For a long moment there was silence, and then she was there, stepping into the dim light of the hallway. Seeing the tears streaking her face and the tremulous smile on her lips, he felt his heart breaking. Angel was back, and his Buffy would be leaving him. Gritting his teeth as his fists clenched, he turned his back to her and started to stride away.

A tiny hand grabbed him and swung him around. Seeing the hurt in his face, her anger melted away. She shook her head, giving him a smile so full of love it made his chest tighten. “Angel’s gone, Spike. The spell worked, but…” Her saw a moment of understanding flash through her eyes, “Death is my last gift to him. He doesn’t deserve to live a life full of pain and guilt.”

He was silent for a long moment before suddenly he crushed his lips to hers in a fierce, consuming kiss. “I thought I’d lost you.”

She laughed, smacking him gently on the arm. “It takes more than that to keep me from you. Come on, the others are waiting.”

Turning her back on the past, her soul mate clutching her hand desperately as though he would never let her go, the strongest Champion the world had ever known faced the future, finally free of the darkness.





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