Buffy the Vampire Slayer®
a Speculation by Bob Abrahams
Based on characters created by — and in appreciation to — Joss Whedon
Characters and material on which this is based ©Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
The Season 3 Opener?
Two months later:
He had given Angelus the final part of the ritual that had almost sucked the world into Hell. Apparently that had not happened. The world was still here. But he had lost his Slayer. And so his world was gone. For what is a Watcher without a Slayer?
All indications were that the Hellmouth had closed along with the defeat of Acaltha. And yet things were not quiet in Sunnydale. Spike seemed to be gone, but the vampires had gotten pretty wild. They were leaderless and seemed to be out more and more, sometimes for feeding, sometimes just for fun. And there was no Slayer to keep them from it.
Giles had not seen Buffy since she left the library that night to respond to a challenge from Angelus — a challenge that turned out to be a diversion to capture him. Xander had told him a little about what had happened — How Kendra had been killed by Drusilla; how Willow had made the second attempt to complete the curse on Angel; how Buffy had come to save him — and the world.
But none of them had seen Buffy or Angel again after that. They did not know for certain what had happened, whether the curse had been successful (though Willow felt it had been), and where either of them were. But at least he was certain that Buffy was still alive. He recalled how he felt when she had died before — a death that had resulted in Kendra becoming a Slayer — before Xander had revived her. He hadn't felt that way this time. He felt her out there somewhere. And there was that letter Buffy had left with her mother, apparently after she had returned the demon Acathla to its dormant state.
Giles pushed his glasses back onto his face and made the decision. He had to go find her. He was her Watcher.
Her daughter had told her she was a Vampire Slayer. It's not that Joyce didn't believe her, though perhaps she didn't. She just didn't understand it.
The Sunnydale police told her that, based on witness accounts, Buffy was no longer a suspect in the death of that girl. But the school principal, Mr. Snyder, told her that she was still expelled, even if she tried to come back.
The school librarian, Rupert Giles, was a very nice, if strange man. (But then it seemed that almost everyone who Buffy knew was strange.) Mr. Giles told her about the Vampires and the Slayers. He seemed to know what he was talking about, but how could she believe him?
But as she thought about all the strange experiences she had had with Buffy in the last few years, especially since coming to Sunnydale, she found she had to believe. The most recent encounter, with Buffy and that strange fellow, Spike, was very convincing — the way that hideous creature sort of disintegrated when Buffy stabbed him with the stake.
Was all this her fault? Was she a failure as a mother? She didn't know what to think. But she wanted her daughter back.
It seemed strange around Sunnydale High without Buffy or Giles around. Of course, "strange" in Sunnydale is a matter of degree. Xander and Cordelia, Willow and Oz hung out together, but they didn't know what to do. They had pretty much recovered from their physical wounds — Willow's head, Xander's arm — but there were other wounds that would take much longer to heal. None of them would admit it, but they were frightened. There were vamps around every night. Even in crowds, at the Bronze, people weren't safe. Of course, most people didn't really know what was happening, but people were dying nonetheless. The gang even tried their hand at slayage. The vampires were so disorganized that they actually got a few. But the vampires were still strong, Giles had been gone a month and Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Oz were not Slayers.
Willow was certain that she had restored the curse on Angel, that he had been given a soul again. But now she didn't even know if he was alive or dead. Of course, this is a difficult condition to be sure of with a vampire, even when they are walking around. And even if he was back to being Buffy's Angel, he was still a vampire. And he had still killed Miss Calendar. But with a soul, perhaps he would have remorse for what he had done.
Xander was still upset that Willow even tried to save Angel. Cordelia felt that this is because Xander was in love with Buffy. Xander denied it, but even he wasn't sure. Who is he really in love with: Cordy, with whom he continued to share passion in the closets? Will, to whom he professed his love when she was in a coma just a few months ago.? Or Buffy, the angry, strong-willed Chosen One? All of them or none of them?
Over the last few months, Cordelia and Oz have become a closer part of this band. Here is a group of high school students, risking their lives to save each other and the world. Wow! Their lives before becoming involved with Buffy and her friends now seems so shallow. Things that were important before are now, if not unimportant, at least less important.
All four have their regular lives to live out — family, school, other friends — and although they miss Buffy and even Giles, they must go on. At the end of the school year, though, as summer begins, they plot a way to help as best they can. They learned that Giles had gone to Los Angeles to find Buffy. Even though her father has not heard from her, Giles had assumed she must be there, since that is the only other city that she really knows. And so the adventure continues for them.
Principal Snyder was just glad that the school year is over. That Summers girl has been gone for some time. But strange and terrible things continue to happen, even without her. Perhaps he was premature in telling the Mayor that he had good news. He was brought in to restore order to Sunnydale High, after the unusual demise of the previous principal. Snyder had seen this as an opportunity, but the Summers girl was always making it difficult for him. When he found a way to get rid of her, he was quite sure his troubles would be over. He was wrong. He had known about the Summers girl, but he might have handled things differently if he had known that Whistler was in Sunnydale.
Spike was unhappy in Los Angeles. Oh, the feeding was fine. Since he had helped defeat Angelus and saved the world, or so he believed, he still had his "Happy Meals on legs." But Drusilla was still mad at him over how he had treated Angel, not to mention how he had dragged her out. She wouldn't help him anymore with her sight, and he had to hunt on his own. It wasn't fun. Los Angeles was becoming such a bore.
And recently Dru had begun to rant and rave again. Something about them being here. She wouldn't be any more clear than that, no matter how much he tried to get it out of her. It couldn't be Angelus or that Slayer. They were both back at where the Hellmouth used to be. Or, he hoped, they had both been drawn into it before it closed.
It had been many, many years since he had taken on this current existence, but the last few months seemed like a much longer eternity. It was Hell on Earth.
Floating in the void, Angel could not tell how much time had passed since he had entered the Hellmouth. It did seem odd that the wound in his stomach didn't hurt. Other things hurt much more. He didn't know what happened, exactly, but he had regained enough of his memory to know what he had done while his soul was gone. And even though this was a shorter time, this was worse than his memories of before the first time he was given back his soul. This time, he had betrayed friends... and his love.
He still wasn't sure exactly where he was or how he got here. It had something to do with Buffy, but he wasn't sure how. If he waited long enough, he felt it would eventually come back to him, as had his other memories, up to when he was fighting with Buffy to free Acaltha.
He had plenty of time, though. That's all he had. That, and his soul. And, wherever he was, that really made it Hell for him.
Los Angeles: It was three months since The Day. It had been a Hell of a day for Buffy the Vampire Slayer — quite literally. She had been expelled from school. But what did she need a high school diploma for? Would she even live long enough to use her school education? And she had practically been thrown out of her house by her own mother. That was nothing, though, compared to what else had happened. The only other person in the world who knew what it was like to be the Chosen One had been killed. And she had killed her one true love in order to save the world. Or at least she had consigned him to Hell.
And, she realized, Kendra had been right. By telling her secret to her friends and involving them in her special life, she was endangering them. But no more! This should be her duty alone. And since she was no longer a student, she could do her duty almost full time. This was her life. She had been Chosen.
She had left Sunnydale that day on the bus, leaving a note for her mother, but not having the strength to say goodbye to her friends. She headed back to her home in Los Angeles. Home. When her mom left her dad and they moved to Sunnydale, it was to start a new life in a new home. But for Buffy, it all started again when she met her new Watcher. She was still the Chosen One from this generation. Now she decided that Sunnydale was never really Home, just a new place to do her slaying. Back in L.A., she didn't try to find her father, though. She was just hunting.
Her money had begun to run out, and she had to take some temp work. She never stayed with any one job too long. She didn't want to get attached to anyone. The temp agency she signed up with gave her a lot of flexibility in her schedule. That was important, for with all the people in this larger city, there were plenty of vampires to be slain. And she somehow felt better on patrol. She could lose herself in the moment — the searching and the fighting. Focusing on the mission was another thing Kendra had been right about.
She missed her friends. She really missed Giles and the guidance and strength she always got from her Watcher. But it was better this way. She had to do it alone. It wasn't so long ago that she would have done anything to have her normal life back, to give up being the Slayer. Dripping with irony, wasn't it? This is what she wanted now. This is what she had Become. She wasn't really Buffy anymore. She wasn't a teenage school girl. She wasn't anyone's daughter. She wasn't anyone's lover. She wasn't even anyone's friend. She was the Chosen One. She had totally Become the Slayer.