The Cure:
Disclaimer: Do I need to state the obvious? I'm not Joss, I'm not Mutant Enemy (although my partner might disagree), I don't know the Kuzuis, and I have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with Fox and/or WB... and besides, suing me would be like, well, like a Slayer falling in love with a Vampire... you can try and try, but ya ain't gonna get nothin' out of it but pain... (i.e. I'm not making any money from these stories, thus, I have no money -- although I do have a job-- so don't bother suing.)
ANYHOO... the story picks up more or less at the beginning of "Graduation Day, Part 2"... so if you haven't had the pleasure of even seeing a poor internet bootleg of the ep, this is a MAJOR spoiler. Of course, if you haven't seen it, you wouldn't know that until you HAD seen it... but I digress. The rest of the Ep doesn't happen, and it would appear most of Season Three didn't happen, either. No mayor, bare mention of Faith, no Ascension, etc.
Chapter Two
It had been a long few days, for Angel. The others had left, finally, after several more attempted attacks by Xander, Giles forcing him to give a fully detailed account of what had passed between him and Buffy, and Willow mostly crying. After they had gone, he left to replenish his blood supply, doubling it to make sure there was enough for Buffy.
He gritted his teeth on the walk home from Willy's. Of all the pain he had endured, this was the worst. He was bringing home dinner for he and his girlfriend... problem was, dinner was fresh pig's blood, and he had turned his girlfriend into a hideous, blood-thirsty demon.
Had he done the right thing? Had Xander been right -- should he have let Buffy die?
He should never have allowed her to goad him into biting her in the first place. He should have let her kill him, first.
Now... now he had lost her for certain, forever. And her friends loathed him more than they ever had before. He had murdered Buffy. He had killed the Slayer.
Spike would be proud. Of course, Spike hated him too.
What was Buffy's mother going to say?
She wailed hysterically in Giles' arms.
Willow and Xander sat, alternately wringing their hands and staring about the room, trying not to watch or to think about what was happening.
"But, uh... she's not dead... exactly..." Willow offered weakly, patting Joyce's shoulder.
Joyce's tears didn't slow. Giles merely held her, seriously needing the comfort himself.
Willow frowned and sat back. She wasn't helping, she knew. Buffy was dead, essentially, to her mother. She certainly couldn't live at home again -- well, maybe in the basement... but her night time-only appearances might be hard to explain. And her dad -- what would they tell her dad? At least Joyce had had an inkling that such a thing was possible... Mr. Summers probably didn't even believe vampires existed... Willow sure hadn't, before Buffy... and now his daughter was one.
She played over parts of the curse in her head again to distract herself.
Xander felt numb, and looked catatonic. Saying he was running on autopilot was an extreme understatement. Buffy...dead...Buffy...dead...Buffy...dead... the morbid cadence chugged through his brain like the Little Bad Thought That Could. After all the times Buffy had saved his sorry ass, and she was gone, just like that. He heard Willow's feeble insistence that she wasn't exactly dead... 'Oh, no...sorry, she's only undead, and that's so much better...' he thought.
There was no way she'd ever go out with him now.
He shocked even himself with his selfish insensitivity. What was he thinking? Sorrow tugged at his heart again as if to remind him. Buffy was dead...
And it was all because of Angel. Xander felt rage course through him, burning away the sorrow. That bastard -- he wanted Angel dead now, more than ever. And if it was by his hand, so much the better. He fought the urge to jump up and go kill him on the spot.
The sick part was, Buffy really needed him, now. Once her soul was restored, she would have to learn how to live as a vampire. Dead Asshole had plenty of experience in that arena...
What was it with women and dangerous men who were no good for them? Of course, this was an extreme case... but he still didn't get it.
Giles felt nothing. Thought nothing. He held Joyce's sobbing figure and simply sat. When Angel had murdered Jenny, he had gone numb. What he was now was less feeling than that. A vacuum, perhaps-- anti-thought, anti-feeling.
He would think about the practical things later. The upcoming ritual, what Buffy's "life" would be like now, what the Council might do... and what to do about Angel. Certainly something had to be done about the creature now! But no -- it was not completely Angel's doing, Buffy was at least partially responsible, pig-headedly forcing an ill Angel into a confrontation... but then, Angel was a quarter of a millennium old -- he should have known better.
Giles wondered if another Slayer would be called. He wondered if he could survive the rending pain in his heart.
"Buffy..." he whispered.
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