"Okay, what's up?" Buffy asked, looking at Xander.
"Uh, let's go over here and sit." Xander said nervously, leading her to a bench in the quad.
"Okay, now you're making me nervous." Buffy said, giving Xander a look.
"Oh, no, no, there's nothing to be nervous about. Really, it's silly. Ha, ha!" Xander says as they sit on the bench.
"Well?" Buffy asked, beginning to wonder if Xander was ill or something.
"Um... You know, Buffy, uh, Spring Fling is a... time for students to gather and... Oh, God! Buffy, I want you to go to the dance with me. You and me, on a date." Xander said in a rush.
"I-I don't know what to say." Buffy replied in shock.
"Well, you're not laughing. So that's a good start. Buffy, I like you. A lot. And I know we're friends, and we've had experiences... we've fought some blood-sucking fiends, and that's all been a good time. But I want more. I wanna dance with you."
Xander's voice was filled with emotion.
"Look, Xander, I'm sorry, but I can't." Buffy said sadly.
"Oh. I get it." Xander said, his hopeful expression fading.
"No, you don't. I like you, Xander. A lot. On my first day, when you asked if you could have me, I almost said yes." Buffy confessed.
"Wow." Xander said.
"Yeah." Buffy said sadly. "You and Willow are not the first to help me I the Slaying. Before I got booted, there was this guy, Pike. He was kinda like you, when he found out about the Slaying he decided to help."
Buffy paused, emotion and unshed tears filling her eyes. Xander wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she leaned in, drawing comfort from his presence.
"I got him killed, Xander." She whispered. "One stupid mistake. We were…. close, and I got him killed. I couldn't stand it if that happened to you."
"I'm still going to help." Xander said, almost defensively.
"Maybe some day, Xander. Maybe then I'll be ready, but not now. I can't now." She promised.
"Hey, I understand. I may never pay attention in class and hate it when Giles makes us do research, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid." Xander assured her.
"She's gone." Xander said, looking around Angel's apartment.
'Wow. He has collected a lot of shit over the years.' Xander thought as he looked around.
"What do you mean?" Angel asked in confusion.
"Buffy, she's gone to fight the Master." Xander clarified.
"He'll kill her."
"Rumour has it. Only we're not gonna let it happen."
"Well, what do you propose we do about it?" Angel asked, getting peeved at this child.
"Look, I know you can find this Master guy. He's underground, right? Take me to him." Xander demanded.
"You're way out of your league, kid. The Master'll kill you before you can even breathe. If you're lucky."
"How can I say this clearly?" Xander said, pulling a cross and advancing on Angel. "I don't like you. At the end of the day, I pretty much think you're a vampire. But Buffy's got this deal where she thinks you are useful. She thinks you're a real person. And right now I need you to prove her right."
"You're in love with her." Angel stated.
"Of course, aren't you?"
"Alright, give me a minute."
Angel left Xander waiting in the living room.
'Or is that unliving room?' Xander though idly.
"Come on. Time is of the essence." Xand called out.
A few seconds later Angel emerged ready to go.
"Let's go." Angel said.
Xander followed Angel down into the Master's Lair.
"Shit. He's gone." Angel said.
"Buffy!" Xander exclaimed when he saw her body.
She was laying face down in a pool of water, with a vampire's bite marks clear on her throat. What disturbed Xander the most was that the water was pink, very pink. Xander hurried over and pulled her from the water, and saw her pail pallor.
"She's dead." Angel said solemnly.
"We still got a shot, CPR." Xander said, knelling down beside her body, and motioning Angel to do the same.
"I have no breath." Angel replies to the gesture, taking a few steps back.
Annoyed at the vampire, Xander started doing CPR, alternating between breathing into her mouth and pushing on her chest to restart her heart. After several minutes of desperate work, Xander finally admitted that Buffy was dead, sitting back on his ankles and dropping his head in defeat, tears streaming down his face.
"We couldn't stop it Xander. It was destiny." Angel said.
Xander felt anger rising in him, his eyes drying as he rose to his feet.
"No breath?" Xander whispered before raising his voice. "How are you talking?"
"What?"
"If you have no breath, then how are you talking?!"
"I don't…." Angel began.
You chicken shit bastard!! Why didn't you at least help with the compressions?" Xander's rising anger becoming apparent in his voice.
Angel's silence echoed through the carven. Range and Adrenaline starting rising to new heights.
"You don't know how. That's it isn't it? I could have shown you. You could've done it better. You're dead, no need for Oxygen, but no. You make me sick."
"It was written." Angel said desperately, trying to defend himself.
"A convenient excuse for those who sit by and do nothing!"
Xander was stalking forward, his anger focused on the undead coward before him. Angel began backing away from the boy, seeing the dangerous glint in his eyes.
"If you had've helped, we could have saved her!" Xander raged.
"No. I…." Angel began, but was suddenly cut of by the disintegration of his lungs and vocal cords into a fine dust, as a result of the wooden Stake that Xander had driven into his heart.
"Now for the Master." Xander said, shifting the focus of his rage.
Xander, Adrenaline and rage pulsing within him, began to run, searching for the nearest exit from the sewers. His mind working in overdrive, he mentally back tracked the path that Angel had led him down and then retraced its path on the streets above.
"The School." He whispered, pumping his legs harder.
As he approached the school, he saw a flicker of movement on the roof above the Library and knew it was the Master. Barely paying any attention to the vampiric guard, just coat-hangering him as he passed, Xander sprinted up the stairs to the roof.
Letting out a growl of anger, Xander burst through the door at the top of the stairs and came face to face with the Master. Without pause, Xander crouched and launched himself at the ancient Vampire, impacting with such force that it sent both of them rolling across the roof. With reason and restraint clouded by his overwhelming anger, Xander began clawing and biting the Master. The Master, after sixty years underground and a few centuries without an opponent of quite this level, was shocked to find a seemingly normal human attacking so fiercely. Wrapping his arm around one of the Master's, Xander yanked it brutally, causing the Master's upper arm to shatter.
Taking advantage of the Master's weakness, Xander drew back and delivered a powerful blow, which caved in the Master's entire chest, ripping it open in two places and spewing blood across the rooftop. Struggling through the pain, the Master tried to bite Xander, who pulled back from reach. Taking half a step back, Xander jumped and brought all the crushing weight of his entire body down on the Master's knees, shattering them into a fine powder and eliciting a scream of pain that echoed throughout Sunnydale, only to be topped a second late when Xander grabbed the Master's shattered arm and ripped it right out of the socket. Xander stalked towards the Master as the severed arm turned to dust in his hand. The Master, unable to struggle away with only one arm and both his knees shattered, looked on in fear. With amazing strength born of the massive amounts of Adrenaline pumping through his veins, Xander punched the Master in the face so hard that his entire cranium exploded in a shower of blood, pulverised brain tissue and bone, which turned to dust a second later, along with the rest of his body.
As the Adrenaline began to ware off, Xander started to limp back down the stairs, several slashes from the Master's claws marked his chest and arms, with a particularly brutal one marring his right thigh. Entering the Library, Xander dropped down onto one of the chairs with a wince. He saw Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Miss Calender, all standing around supporting at least minor injuries.
"Where's Buffy?" Willow asked.
"The Master killed her." Xander said sadly.
"And the Master?" Miss Calender asked.
"Dead. I killed him." Xander sighed as if it made little difference. "Angel's dead too."
"Oh my god. What are we going to do now?" Willow asked.
Everyone was silent for a few minutes before Xander sighed again and stood, moving towards the door.
"I'm going to tell Mrs Summers." Xander commented before the doors swung shut behind him.
Giles stepped forward, dressed in his usual Tweed suit, however his mood was sombre as he began to speak.
"When I first met Miss Summers, she had just walked into the Library looking for a book she needed for school. My first impression of her was a self absorbed young woman whose only interest was clothing and hairstyles. I am glad to say she proved me wrong. Miss Summers was a compassionate and dedicated young woman. While she may have gotten in trouble with authority for fighting, if you dug into the matter, you would always find that the under-riding motivations behind her actions was invariably the protection of others.
"Buffy's light attitude and appalling brutalisation of the English language, while at first an annoyance, soon became a familiar and welcome addition to the Library, one which will be sorely missed. I've found over the long years of my life, that this world is like an ocean. One minute you can have clear skies and calm seas, while the next the storm clouds roll in, the waves kick up and all our lives become a struggle. Miss Summers was never one to shy from the storm, often calling 'do your worst' into the darkness and willingly bearing the onslaught so that others may ride the calm waters. Unfortunately this time the sea was to rough and her free spirit was overcome by the darkness which swamped her. I can only hope that when my own time comes to face the swell that I can cry out and face the crashing waves so that others may ride calm waters."
Although the bright sun shone down upon the small gathering and the beautiful Southern Californian weather made for a cheery day, the people held heavy hearts as they stood around the grave of Buffy Summers. Only seven people had attended the burial of a Hero, a Slayer. There was the priest; Giles, who had just delivered the Eulogy; Miss Calender; Mrs Summers; Willow; Xander and Cordelia. The tombstone was simple marble, with the inscription:
Buffy Summers,
1981 — 1997
A light in the darkness,
That guides us on.
Mrs Summers was sobbing, the kind of low sobbing that came after the energy to properly cry was gone but the pain was still as strong as ever. Willow was crying hard on Xander's shoulder, who was staring at the grave with eyes almost void of emotion, as if he was almost dead inside. Giles looked on with the resignation of one who had buried too many people, but the hurt in his eyes showed that this one he really cared about. Jenny Calender and Cordelia were not crying but they did have pain and grief in their eyes, while the priest looked on, a detached observer whose only regret was having to perform a service for one so young. As the funeral broke up, Xander gave the still crying Willow to Giles and went to intercept Mrs Summers.
"Mrs Summers." He said.
"Hi, um, Xander, right?" Joyce Summers asked.
"Yeah. I'm sorry about Buffy. I wish I could have gotten to her in time." Xander said quietly.
"I'm sure you did all you could. You couldn't have fought off a whole gang." Joyce said, referring to the cover story that they had given her.
"Look, Mrs Summers, I don't want to sound callous, but you need to leave town." Xander said.
"Excuse me." Joyce said, truly shocked.
"Look, more is going on here than you realise. If you don't want to join Buffy soon, then leave. Don't make her sacrifice meaningless." Xander said, his voice full of the emotion that had been lacking from his eyes earlier.
"What are you talking about?"
"Please, don't ask. Just go somewhere far away and live your life. Do it for Buffy, please." Xander pleaded, before turning and walking away.
A few weeks had passed since Buffy's funeral, finding Xander, Willow and Giles in the library. Gone were Xander's outrageous clothing, instead he only wore black, and right now he was angry.
"What?!?" he growled.
"The Council has ordered me back to England." Giles replied.
"Fine, go." Xander said in a low, angry voice.
"Xander!" Willow scolded.
"You think I bloody want to go?!?" Giles said, letting some of his alter ego emerge.
"Then why fuck are you?"
"Because, Xander, I have no choice." Giles replied.
"Bullshit. Fuck the Council. Those bastards don't give a shit about the world, they just want the Slayer as their tool so they can feel important."
"Xander! Language." Willow admonished.
"You go to them and you are dead to me." Xander spat at Giles.
"You think I want to dishonour Buffy like this. If I don't go, they'll have me deported. They can ruin lives with the stroke of a pen." Giles yelled.
A heavy silence reigned for a few minutes until a thought hit Xander.
"And Willow can restore them with the click of a keyboard." Xander said with a smirk.
Giles let out a truly Ripperish grin while Willow booted up the computer.
"Let's teach those idiots that it's the Twentieth Century." The redhead said, letting her Hacker skills work their magic in a world of ones and zeros.
Xander lead Giles into Angel's apartment. They were there to catalogue all the items to see which they could use, which they could sell and see if there were any truly dangerous items. After the initial unpleasantness with the Council a few weeks ago, Giles and Willow had convinced them that it was beneficial for Giles to stay upon the Hellmouth to monitor the 'altered patterns of the vampiric and demonic communities in order to determine the socio- political ramifications and interspecies dynamics of the various populations when influenced by the influx of mystic energy and the diversity of species in such a close proximity'. The Council had agreed as much out of fear of what Willow could do to them on the computer as in an attempt to look smart, as they did not understand the reason given for Giles to stay. In the intervening weeks, the group had patrolled but Sunnydale was suffering its, soon to be routine, Summer lull, and they had finally gotten around to searching Angel's apartment.
"Sell." Giles said, as Xander showed him some knickknack from Angel's apartment.
Xander picked up a figurine and showed it to Giles.
"Send back to the Council. It can suck your brain out through your nose when activated." The Watcher said, while putting a nice looking axe in the keep pile.
Xander carefully put the figurine in the DDG pile; Dangerous, Deadly and Gross. Opening an ordinary looking chest, Xander found something amazing. Two swords, with long, strait blades only bout two inches wide and a few millimetres thick, with some elaborate designs along the blades. The swords were obviously, event to Xander, of Chinese origin.
'I guess all those kung-fu movies do help,' he thought idly.
He pulled them out of the chest, noticing that one was heavier, with a longer blade and larger hilt, obviously designed for a man, while the other was shorter and had the smaller hilt that more suited a female hand. For some reason Xander felt comfortable holding the larger blade, almost as if it had been designed for his hand.
"Giles, I'm keeping these." He said, putting the swords in a new pile.
"Oh my. Xander, do you have any idea what these swords are?" Giles asked in shock.
"Yeah. My sword and its mate." Xander said without thinking.
"Xander, these swords were made by a Chinese Slayer who forged her own weapons." Giles said.
"Cool, got to dig a chick with an anvil." Xander joked.
"She was killed in the Boxer Rebellion." Giles continued, ignoring the interruption. "Supposedly she had a sorcerer cast a spell on the swords. The smaller, female, one can only be used by a Slayer while the male one can only be used by a Warrior of the Light. Supposedly the male one will be the chosen weapon of the greatest demon hunter of all time."
"Cool. But till this great demon hunter dude comes around and says 'give me my sword or I'll rip your lungs out and use 'em as a hat', it's mine." Xander said, more forceful in his claiming of the weapon than he realised.
A few hours later they left the now abandoned apartment with a crate of DDG items bound for the Watcher Council, several cool weapons and various items to help the fight in town and what would amount to several thousand dollars worth of stuff that they intended to sell. Xander, keeping the swords with him, went home and then broke down, cursing Angel for concealing the female sword, which Buffy could have used in her fight against the Master, and mourning the loss of his friend and love.