"You love her." Angel said flatly.
"Don't you?" Xander asked in response.
Angel and Xander ran into a group of vampires in the tunnels to the lair of the Master. It took them five minutes to dust all the vampires, five minutes Buffy did not have.
They got to the Masters lair, an underground church, where they found Buffy lying face down in the water.
"No!" Xander screamed, running over to Buffy's body. He pulled her out and checked for a pulse. When he found none he desperately tried to CPR to no effect, while Angel stood in the backround.
"She's dead." Xander practically whispered. "She's dead!" Xander roared as adrenile started pumping through his system, amping up his senses as well as his speed and strength.
Angel was so startled by Xander's roar and didnt react in time as Xander's hands grabbed his head.
"If you hadn't been sitting on your dead ass she'd be alive!" Xander yelled as he literally ripped Angel's head from his shoulders. Xander took off for the library as fast as his adrenile amped musces could take him. With the adreniline pushing him to a slayers level in power, Xander practically flew up to the roof of the school where the Master was waiting.
"You killed her!" Xander yelled. "For that you will die!" He launched himself at the startled and overconfident vampire.
Xander knocked the Master around easily, his adreniline boosted body whipping around so fast that the Master saw nothing but a blur. His punches and kicks beat down upon the Master forcing the vampire back. With a powerful kick he catapulted the Master through a whole in the library ceiling and onto a broken table that peirced his undead heart. Letting out an unholy scream the Master disintegrated leaving only his bones behind. Xander jumped through the hole into the library landing and crushing the bones where Willow and Giles had watched the exchange in no small amount of awe.
"Buffy? Is she?" Willow trailed off at Xander's nod. "Angel?"
"Dusted!" Xander snarled. "I had to drag the bastard down there and had he not dragged his feet Buffy would still be alive. So I dusted him by removing his head with my bear hands."
Willow wrapped one arm around him and the other around Giles. Xander's body stopped producing adreniline at the same time as his rage finally faded. The three collapsed onto the floor, hugging each other and crying for their lost friend, or in Giles case, daughter he never had. It was Giles who recovered first, pulling himself back and rising to his feet. He pulled out his Watcher diary and wrote of the end of Buffy. Putting down his pen, he steadied himself and picked up the phone. Dialing the number of the Council and waiting 'til the line was secured.
"Watcher Giles, what is is that you need?" A voice said over the phone.
Buffy Summers, Slayer, has died. She was . . . Drained," His voice broke. "By a vampire known as the Master." A sharp intake of breath on the other side of the line interupted him.
"Is the Master free."
"He was."
"Was?" The voice asked confused.
"One of my 'charges', a Xander Harris, went into a berserker rage rage and beat the Master into a pulp before sending the Master flying into a broken table which peirced it's heart." Giles said with a small amount of pride for Xander.
"Apocalypse averted?"
"For now."
"I will have Zabuto send Kendra over to help once her powers fully awaken. I am sorry for your loss Mr. Giles. goodbye." The phone was hung up.
"We'll have to patrol for a few weeks until Kendra, the next slayer, arrives to help." Giles said as he saw the other two, who were also like childrren to him, getting up. The two nodded to him that they would while Xander picked up an emotionally drained Willow. Giles led them out to his car whereupon he took the two to willows house.
"Willow's parents are out and I'm gonna stay with her for the night." Xander said, leaning in the window of the car. "We would be happy to have you stay as well."
Giles smiled. "Alright," and got out of his car. Xander turned and carried Willow to the house, inside it, and up to her room, where he removed her clothes and gave her a shirt of his to wear. He tucked he in and said goodnight to the sleeping form in the bed. He found Giles sleeping on the couch and shut off the lights in that room. He headed to the guest room and crawled into the bed, faling into a dreamless sleep.
When Xander woke up the next morning, he was disorientated. *What the hell!!?* he thought. Suddenly the events of the night before came crashing down upon him like a ton of bricks. *Oh God, Buffy!* Xander thought as he rushed over to the wastebin in Willow's guest room. After he finished throwing up he headed into the small bathroom adjacent the guest room. He had spent so much time over here growing up that the Rosenburg's had kept the room set up for him. He quickly showered and changed into clean, decent clothes. His cothes from the day before shredded from the fight with both the vampire's and the Master. He headed down to Willow's room to find her already awake and changed. However she was curled up in a ball and rocking back and forth murmuring "Buffy." softly. Xander's heart broke at the sight.
"Shh. It'll all be alright, Wills. Somehow i'll make it all alright." He repeated this over and over again as he wrapped Wilow in his arms until she stoped crying.
"Xand.." Willow said, her voice hoarse from the crying. "We.. We need to get her body, Xand. It's still down there."
Xander realised in horror that he had indeed left her body down in the catacombs. He made a promise to himself to get Giles and go get her body as soon as Willow would be alright.
"Oh God Wills. I forgot completely." Xander said, cursing himself. "I'll get Giles and go get her in a bit. What do we tell Ms. Summers though?"
"The truth Xander, she deserves it. She needs to know her daughter was a hero." Willow responded.
"Alright, Wills. Let's go down and wake Giles up."
The two teens moved themselves downstairs to where Giles was asleep on one of Willow's couches. The librarian/Watcher was snoring lightly, his glasses dangling from one ear.
"Giles. GILES!!" Xander said, startling Giles awake.
"Wha???" He said confused. This wasn't his apartment. Like Xander the memories of the day before crashed down upon the older man who managed to limit his reaction, just barely, to a sorrowful look on his face.
"Giles, we need to head down into the catacombs and retrieve Buffy's body." Xander managed to say before his voice broke at the thought of the blond Slayer.
"Yes. We also must decide what to tell her mother." Giles responded, unconciously echoing Xander's words from before.
"We already decided what to tell her. The truth. She deserves to know." Willow said.
"Alright. We better get going then." Giles sighed as he stood up and hugged his 'children'. He took out his keys and led the way out to the car.
The trip to the Hillcrest mausoleum was made in silence as the three in the old car were too lost in their own thoughts of the day before to hold any type of conversation. This time Xander led them through the catacombs to the abandoned church that once held the Master. Giles and Willow nearly broke down at the sight of Buffy's body laying there. The expression on her face made it look peaceful. The only thing marring the image was the torn bit of skin where the Master had bitten her. The two men carefully lifted her body and carried it carefully back to the surface, only stopping while Xander set the church ablaze. With the utmost reverance the two carried her body out to the sidewalk of the school and called the hospital to send an ambulance to pick up the body. It woud turn out later on that her death, in spite of her body lacking blood, would be ruled as an animal attack. Once the ambulance had left the three headed back to Giles's car to go to Ms. Summers home.
Once there the three walked slowly up the walk only to be met at the door by a worried Joyce Summers. "Xander? Willow? Where's Buffy?" Joyce asked fearfully. Her fear grew when she saw the expressions of the three sadden.
"Ms. Summers," Xander said sadly. "I'm afraid Buffy was killed last night." Anything further that Xander had to say was cut of by Joyce's heartwrenching "NOOOO!!!!!" tore through the air as she collapsed. "Ms. Summers!"
The three entered the home, Xander carrying the sobbing form of Joyce to the couch. "How?" She asked.
Giles sighed. "Your daughter was what is known as a Slayer, one girl in each generation given the power to hold back the demonic and supernatural evil. She died last night at the hands of a several century old master vampire, appropriately named, the Master. She was a hero and without her we would've been plunged into hell itself. Xander here exacted revenge upon the Master in righteous, as well as berserker, rage which ended with its defeat."
"Oh God." Joyce sobbed out. "Where is my daughters body?"
"We had an ambulance come by and pick it up just before we drove here." Xander was cut off from saying anything further by being swept up in a hug from Joyce as well as Giles and Willow. The three others joined Joyce in releasing their own tears of pain and grief. About ten minutes later the seperated and Joyce headed to the upstairs bathroom to clean herself up to go to the hospital. Joyce forced herself to quit crying and headed back downstairs where the others waited.
"We'll take my car down to take care of the p-paperwork and then head to the funeral home, alright?" Joyce asked the others. Giles, Xander, and Willow nodded and headed out the door with Joyce right behind. The drive to the hospital was made in same silence as had been in Giles's car. Once in the parked the four headed directly to the receptions desk of the hospital.
"Hello. My name is Joyce Summers. I'm Buffy Summers's mother. I was told that she had been killed and that her body was here." Joyce told the reptionist while trying deperately not to cry. The receptionist phoned a doctor to take them to the morgue to give a positive ID on Buffy's body. When the sheet was pulled back to reveal Buffy's peaceful expression Joyce started to collapse and was caught by Giles. "It's her." Joyce confirmed, barely managing not to cry again. The doctor covered the body once again as the others led Joyce back outside.
Giles drove the vehice to the funeral home and had them take care of Buffy's body before taking Joyce home. The next two days were filled with tears as the four would breakdown at random times and be consoled by whoever was nearby.
"... ashes to ashes and dust to dust.... " The priest closed the cermony and left the five, as Jenny had joined them at the funeral, to say their goodbyes.
"When I first saw Buffy I fell for her, hard." Xander said, letting out a slight chuckle at the joke. " Even when I found out about her 'destiny' I decided to help her fight, even if it only alowed her a few more days of life. You will be missed, Buffy."
"When I first met Buffy we had a little fight over her being the Chosen One. I wish now that had let her win that fight. Goodbye, Buffy, you were the best Slayer and surrogate daughter a man could have." Giles said, cleaning his glasses the whole time.
Up in heaven there was a girl watching them give their goodbyes, who smiled sadly before turning away.