TITLE: What Would Happen If...
AUTHOR: Ragna (Obsessive-Compulsive Spike - WritingGoddess@aol.com;
SpikeGrrl1@aol.com)
RATING: PG
CLASSIFICATION: Buffy/Oz friendship.
SUMMARY: Buffy and Oz get sucked 100 years into the future, and it's a mess.
SPOILERS: All of season 4 BtVS and season 1 A:tS
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I
write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me
know.
ARCHIVED AT: http://www.envy.nu/allthepain/index.html
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If
you do, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kazui Sandollar, FOX and the WB own it or
them. Various friends of mine are holding characters hostage. You may see
them by appointment only.
FEEDBACK: Sorry I'm not home right now I'm walking in the spiderwebs so leave
a message and I'll call you back...in other words, I want it. Don't care if
it's onlist or not.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Almost done! One more part! Muwahahaha!
~*~*~*~
"So that's it?" Buffy said, following Oz into the kitchen. "You're not even
going to ask for my opinion?"

Oz nodded. "I'm not going to ask you opinion. In fact, you're the one who
helped me make up my mind."

"But...but...Oz, you're my friend! I can't just leave you here!"

"You wouldn't just be leaving me here! I don't have anything in Sunnydale
left. You said so yourself."

Buffy grabbed his shoulder. "You have me."

Shaking his head, Oz replied, "Not in the way I'd want to. Buffy, you're
extraordinary, and you're gorgeous and you're a great person...but you don't
want me as more than a friend." He sat down. "And there it is in a nutshell.
You wouldn't want a guy like me."

Buffy started to protest, but then stopped. He was really serious. "Why?"

"You want someone who can be a hero."

"But you *are* a hero," she said, sitting next to her. "You've done a lot,
too, more than you give yourself credit for." She realized even as she was
speaking that he wouldn't change his mind. "And if things had been different,
Oz, if everything had been different..."

"We never would have met."

Buffy was rendered silent by that. He was right; he usually was, anyway. She
did want a hero, someone to rescue her. And if things had been different, she
never would have met Oz.

"So you're going to stay."

"Yes."

Buffy looked at her hands, and then at the setting sun. "I..." she began,
then paused. She looked at Oz. "Please...be careful," she said, leaning in
and kissing him on the cheek.

He took her face in his hands and kissed her lightly on the cheek as well.
"Only if you promise the same thing."

***

Tsar rose at sunset, as he always did. Tsar walked to the window, as he
always did. Drusilla, pretending to be asleep, felt a certain sense of pity
that he didn't know it was going to be his last time doing so.

"Would you care to hunt with me tonight?"

Drusilla pretended to awake, pasting on her fake dreamy smile, her now quick
mind trying to figure out what he was up to. "Of course, my love."

"I think it might be time to repay those humans for the things they've done
against me." He turned and the bit of moonlight out surrounded him, keeping
most of his face in darkness. "And you as well."

She sighed for a moment before she realized that what she could see of his
face was ridged. "Tsar..."

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" Tsar said, slowly moving back towards
the bed. "That this insanity of yours was all an act? That you and Eddie were
plotting my demise?" He laughed harshly. "No more of that...I think it's time
we bring the fight to the forefront."

He roughly pulled her out of the bed by her hair. "Eddie told me you were
planning this to happen tomorrow night...let's hope he wasn't lying to me
before I staked him."

Drusilla made no remark, no gesture to make him think Eddie had in fact lied
to him, only gestures to make him think she'd lost a confidant.
"Please...don't hurt me," she whispered. She wasn't really afraid he'd hurt
her. She was too valuable.

"Hurt you? Never. Now killing you, in front of that ex-lover of yours,
William...that's a different matter." He hauled her out of the room by her
hair. "It will be over soon, Drusilla."

***

"Is everything set up?" Giles asked Wesley.

The younger ex-Watcher nodded. "We're all set here." He motioned towards the
escalating shouting match between Angel and Spike. "That might pose a
problem, however."

Giles nodded and moved towards the two vampires.

"...and it's still your fault! You brought the orb here!" Angel was being
held back by both Graham and Xander.

"But I didn't make them trip on it!" Spike shouted. Anya was trying to pull
him away.

"But you knew what it was!"

"No, I didn't."

Spike's simple answer surprised everyone in the area. Giles cleared his
throat. "You didn't know what it was?"

Spike shook his head. "Not really. Had an idea, but I didn't know how it
worked." He sat down in the grass of the park where they were going to cast
the spell. "I honestly didn't mean for this to happen. Don't you think I'm
beating myself up for this?"

"No," came the answer from Xander, Graham and Angel.

"If I wasn't, why would I risk coming here to help? Soldier Boy here and the
other brute both want to send my arse straight to hell."

Before any of the three could object again, Giles raised his hand. "As
important as all this is, I do believe that Wesley is right. This fighting
could become a problem if it continues. We *must* begin this spell at
midnight and finish it by one am, and if we don't have everyone's help..." He
trailed off, knowing they would get the point.

"Let me help with the spell," Anya said. "I've done it before."

"And *now* she tells us," Giles muttered.

"Helped with would be more accurate," she said. "I can help again. Please?"

Giles nodded. "All right then. We have a half hour until we must begin the
spell. I am hoping everyone will be ready by then." He motioned to Anya to
follow him to where they were casting the spell.

***

Spike was pacing. "Something's wrong. Dru was supposed to be here by now.
It's past midnight."

"But everything else is set, right?" Drew asked.

"Yes, Drew, it's set up," Ewan said. "we just have to wait.

"But something's wrong!" Spike said, turning to face the others. Then Buffy
heard the familiar twang of a crossbow.

"Spike! Duck!"

Spike ducked and the crossbow hit the tree a few feet in front of him.

"Miss her?"

Tsar lowered the crossbow, and moved so Spike could see Dru, who was
squirming in Tsar's strong grasp. "She's such a wonderful mate...as long as
she's an idiotic headcase." he pushed her onto the ground between him and
Spike. "Go, Drusilla," he said in a pointed voice. "Go crawl to your lover."

Drusilla had no reason to trust him as long as he held that crossbow. She
scooted back on her butt, facing Tsar the entire time. When she was halfway
to Spike, Tsar cocked the crossbow.

"I was going to kill William in front of you," Tsar said, aiming the crossbow
at Dru's heart, "but this might be better." And he fired the bolt.

***

"Let's hope this works," Xander muttered, surveying the perimeter.

"Yeah," Graham said, glancing at his watch. "Twenty minutes left..."

***

Tsar cursed the moment he'd decided to kill Drusilla first. She was much
smarter than he had assumed, but he still had the upper hand. He had strength
in numbers.

"Ready!" He looked at all his minions. "Attack!"

Drusilla was ready. "Go!" she shouted, and half the vampires sent to attack
her and her allies turned and attacked those they marched with. There were
over a thousand vampires fighting, but Tsar was the only one worth killing in
the humans eyes.

Buffy made the first attempt, despite her still hurting arm. She lunged for
Tsar and might have had a chance had a vampire duo fighting gotten in the
way. Tsar saw her coming and managed to spring up behind her.

He shoved a small dagger into the general area of her heart, but since Spike
chose that moment to distract him, he ended up shoving the dagger into her
shoulder.

Tsar advanced on Spike, who shielded Drusilla and Jenna, and simply pulled
the crossbow from behind his back. Spike tried to knock it out of his hand as
he got closer, but he shoved the unshot bolt through his heart and watched
his former lover's former lover turn to dust.

"Pity...you should have gone first," he told Drusilla. He fired off the bolt
and hit Drusilla in the chest. When she exploded into dust, she mingled with
Spike's dust.

Angel had been approaching Tsar from behind, his trusted sword ready. As he
started to swing at Tsar's neck, Tsar spun and took a hidden stake he had on
him and stabbed Angel in the chest.

"No!" Buffy screamed, pulling the dagger out of her shoulder with her good
arm. Buffy engaged him in hand to hand combat, but he simply hit her in the
head at an awkward angle that sent her crashing to the ground.

Drew knew what she had to do. Oz tried to keep her back, but she shook her
head. "I'm the Slayer, this time," she said. She picked up Angel's fallen
sword, which had been kicked aside during Tsar and Buffy's fight and crept
behind Tsar.

He didn't hear her coming because a minion yelled at that moment. Drew wasn't
sure if fate was on her side, but...

With one quick motion, she sliced off Tsar's head.

And then there was a blinding light over by the grove of trees. Even the
vampires stopped fighting.

"It's time," Jenna shouted to Oz. "Go!"

"I..." he began, looking at the hole in the grove. It wasn't a hole, exactly,
but he could see Willow and Tara and Wesley and Anya there, casting a spell.
They were just as he knew them.

"Hurry!" Ewan said. "It's getting smaller!"

And true to the fact, it was. He ran to where Buffy was, but was stopped by
Drew. "Hurry up! I'll carry her through!"

Oz brandished his stake and started dusting vampires who got in their way. By
the time they made it to the hole, it was only a foot in circumference. Drew
handed Buffy to Oz. "Go. Now," she said.

Oz hesitated a moment as the hole grew smaller, and asked. "Come with us."

"But..."

And he stopped, and passed Buffy through the hole. He pushed Drew down and
staked the vampire who'd been behind her as the portal closed. "Don't turn
your back on vampires," he said, sinking to the ground.

"You...you didn't leave!"

Oz nodded. "Come on, we have a battle to keep fighting."

***

Graham was hesitant to turn around. But only when he heard Willow scream
"Oz!" did he turn around. The portal they'd created was closing, and he
couldn't see Oz or Buffy. His heart felt like it was going to break into a
million pieces.

And then he heard her voice.

"Will...he's staying there."

Graham let instinct take over as her broke the protective circle and went to
the Slayer. "Buffy..."

She simply reached out to him, mutely asking to be picked up and taken
somewhere safe, somewhere that was home.

Angel started to say something, but Giles shook his head, and they watched as
Graham carried Buffy toward Sunnydale General Hospital, the sounds of her
sobbing being the only sound they heard.