The Chosen Two: The Slayer in Question
by The Angel Lovers
A/N: The title comes from the Angel Season 5 episode, "The Girl in Question". As that episode tried to, but really didn't deal with the whole Angel-Buffy-Spike thing (well, didn't deal with it in my opinion), this chapter's gonna focus on the gang truly mourning the loss of Buffy, and finally being able to begin to move past it. Well, the gang minus one. Oh, and warning, there's some swearing in this. Not a lot, but its there (I'm in a melodramatic kinda mood right now :P).
Chapter Six: The Slayer In Question
"So where you wanna go?" Paige asked.
"New arrival. Not big on the places in this town," Anna reminded her.
"We could check out some cemeteries-"
"-'Some'?"
"There's twelve."
"Oh."
"Or we could check out The Bronze."
"Which would be...?"
"The local club. Vamps usually come there, trying to score a quickie."
"As in a meal?"
"As in both."
"Ain't Sunnydale a grand old town?" Anna remarked sarcastically, earning a laugh from Paige.
"I heard it used to be loads better," she replied, heading in the direction of The Bronze. "When..."
"When Buffy Summers was here." Anna was silent for a moment. "Mr. Giles, Xander, the others...you've been here a month. Have they talked about it?"
"Not really. When Faith and I first came, Willow and the gang came over. They stayed for a while, and Xander told us all these stories about Buffy, all the stuff she did, all the people she saved." At the mention of Faith, Anna took the opportunity to pay a silent hommage to her predecessor, something she had never thought to do before.
"She must've been a hell of warrior."
"Slayer extraordinaire," Paige agreed. "I think Xander would have told us more, but when he came to the part about Buffy and Angel, Willow started to cry and Cordelia got this blank look in her eyes. ...I had hoped that he would have continued. It seemed to be a way for him to grieve properly for her."
"What do you mean, 'properly'?"
"Everytime Buffy's name comes up, they all change. Willow cries -a lot- Cordy has this tendency to go catatonic, and Xander actually dented the cage in the library last time. Oz...he's even more monosyllabic than usual, if that's possible. He tends to spend most of his time calming and consolling Willow. None of them have had a chance to properly move beyond this."
"What about Buffy's mom? Joyce, right? You're staying with her?"
"Yeah. She's cool. I mean, she treats me like I'm her daughter. Literally. Not that mind her maternal attitude, but I think...she called me Buffy once. I don't think she even knew she said it. ...She blames herself."
"What for?"
"Buffy's death. Cordy told me once, she heard Joyce telling Giles, she told Buffy to get out the night she found out Buffy was the Slayer. She told her to leave and not come back. That was the night Buffy died."
"My God," Anna said quietly. "That poor woman."
"Giles blames himself, too, because Angel got one of his vamp friends to work some magick mojo on him, and he told Angel how to call forth Acathla. ...I know it's only been a month, but they're all in shambles."
"A month...if my best friend died, a month later...well, I would probably still be grieving, but I wouldn't..."
"Be a wreck?"
"Yeah. Sounds to me like they're just trying so hard to cling onto the memories of her they have left."
"Good to know what you think." Both Slayers turned to Cordelia, Oz, Willow and Xander facing them, each with an expression of anger, and as always, deep sadness.
"They followed us? All the way from the high school?"
"I'm feeling pretty stupid right about now. Slayer senses, and all."
"I see you stupidity and raise you embarassment."
"Why were you following us?" Anna asked, trying to keep her cool. She didn't appreciate being snuck up on, but these people didn't need her bitching at them right now.
"We weren't," Willow said quietly. "We just wanted to go to The Bronze."
"Yeah, it's where all the cool people hang," Cordelia chipped him, sounding extremely sarcastic and pissed off. Paige took a deep breath, wondering how best to handle the situation.
"Look, guys, about what we said-"
"You were out of line," Xander said through gritted teeth, cutting the Slayer off. "You had no right. You don't know...you didn't know her, okay? You didn't see...we had three Slayers die in three days. Three friends. Gone."
"There's nothing wrong with not wanting her to be dead, with feeling the way you do," Anna said gently. She bit her lip hesitantly before continuing. "But you have to move past your pain. I know it's hard, but-"
"And how would you know that?" Oz asked, which earned head turns from everyone. "How would you even have the faintest idea what we feel?" Willow's mouth was opened in a small 'O' of surprise, and Xander's eyebrows were raised as far as they could go. None of them had ever heard Oz talk about the loss of Buffy. He had always been the one to comfort Willow, or calm down Xander, or talk Cordelia out of her trance. Hell, he had even done the strong-soldier routine for Joyce and Giles.
"I didn't...I didn't mean-"
"Just because we didn't know Buffy doesn't mean that we've never experienced loss before," Paige said quietly. "Vampires killed my brother, the day I was called. I didn't know what to do. Me, the Chosen One. Couldn't fight off a couple of wannabe-bad-ass vamps to save him. ...We were real tight." She bowed her head slightly, to pay respects for the memory of her brother.
"A...friend of mine got attacked by vampires, too," Anna said. "He came with me on patrol one night...wanted to keep me company..." She allowed herself a small, sad smile, remembering the memory. "Cost him his life. ...The only person who ever..." She looked up, staring each of them in the eye.
"What's your point?" Cordelia asked wearily.
"Our point is that everyone has pain," Paige said. "We've all suffered loss. This business kind of guarantees it. But you have to move beyond it. If you don't, then you'll die, too."
"Death of the figurative kind, anyways. Buffy wouldn't want you to be like this. She'd want you to live your life, to do all the great things you were meant to do-"
"Yeah? Well thanks to that bastard, we'll never know what Buffy would want for us," Xander snapped. "Read my lips. He. Killed. Her."
"Read mine," Anna snapped back, her temper getting the better of her. "Move. On." She could see the anger flaring up inside him, but she didn't give a damn if she was pissing him off now. This whole mightier-than-thou-wallowing-in-my-pain act was getting old.
"More eloquently put, grieve. But don't let it consume you. No one's telling you to forget about Buffy. But we're telling you to be strong, like she was. Be strong and move past the pain."
"Easy for you to say," Xander muttered darkly, ushering the others ahead of him, past the Slayers.
"God," Anna breathed, anger evident in her voice.
"We have to give them time. Lots of time. ...This thing hit them harder than I figured."
"Huh? What? No, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou Harris and his crew." Anna shook her head. "That. I swear, I've never seen them this bold before." She ticked her head to the side, and Paige turned around. There were six vampires, feeding.
How nice, Paige thought sarcastically. They've learned to share. There were two vampires to a body, and the blood ran in rivers down the fronts of their shirts.
"Let's do this thing." Anna's face held no expression, but underneath the mask of stone, she fought the overwhelming desire to throw up.
"Welcome to Sunnydale," Paige sighed.
The vampires, spotting the Slayers ready to brawl, dropped the three people, and three sickening thuds could be heard, as each person hit the moist earth. Slowly, they sat up, and the two girls pulled the guy up, and together they stumbled weakly out of the cemetery.
"I dunno about you," Anna quipped, as they whipped out their stakes, "but I'm thinkin' about goin' in for a tune-up. My Slayer senses are definitely screwy."
"Mine work fine," Paige grinned, staking the one that tried to jump her from behind, as easily as she breathed.
"Stupid... know-it-all... who the hell do they think they are?" Xander fumed, kicking at a rock on the sidewalk. He didn't wince, though it hurt him like hell.
"Xander, calm down," Cordelia said wearily. "Please. This whole macho-man-anger thing is getting on my last nerve. ...I love you better the way you were before," she added softly. "When you were sweet and funny and cute and didn't throw scary temper tantrums every ten minutes."
"Calm down? Calm down?!" Xander asked hysterically, oblivious to what Cordelia had just confessed. "How can I calm down when-"
"Xander! For God's sake, shut the hell up!" Willow snapped, her patience finally reaching the end of its limit. "I'm tired! I'm tired of all this pain and heartache! I'm tired of crying myself to sleep every goddamn night because my best friend's dead. I'm tired of seeing you wig out every goddamn day and kick the mailbox's ass."
"Once," he muttered quietly. "That only happened once."
"I'm tired of seeing Cordy slip into some grief-induced trance. I'm tired of seeing Oz try to be the strong soldier, when he's dying inside. I'm tired of seeing Giles do the firm-upper-lip routine, then breaking down every goddamn day in his office, and I'm tired of seeing Joyce break down in hysterics when she does the laundry, or cook dinner, because some random thought of Buffy pops into her head. Paige and Anna were right," Willow continued. "It's time we start to move past this. Buffy wouldn't want us to spend the rest of our lives like this."
"Yeah? Well thanks to-"
"Angel, we'll never know what she'd want," Cordelia interjected. She sighed, defeated. "We've heard this line before, Xander. I'm with Willow. This has to end." She sounded drained, both physically and emotionally.
"You never liked her," he began, hearing how horrible the words sounded. But even so, he still couldn't stop.
"Buffy? Buff, where are you?" He walked through the mansion, one hand gripping a stake firmly, the other hand outstretched, holding a cross. After Principal Snyder had oh-so-eloquently revealed that he'd expelled Buffy, Xander had skipped French and went over to Revello Drive. Joyce had been horrified once she'd learned that Buffy had never shown up for school. She'd admitted that Buffy had told her who she really was, and that they'd fought, but she'd assumed that Buffy had spent the night at Willow's.
"You were always jealous."
So that was why Xander was lurking through the mansion, like he was Soldier Guy again. Cordy and Oz weren't sure if the spell had worked, but if it had, then Xander would feel pretty stupid barging in on Buffy and Angel when they were in the middle of a make-out marathon.
"The only real rival Queen C ever had."
And if the spell hadn't worked...he was glad he thought to come prepared, unlike the last time he went to back Buffy up. Though the flashlight would have been helpful; the darkness was giving him a major case of the wiggins.
"Admit it: you hated her when she got Angel and you didn't."
"Buff?" He asked quietly, hearing soft sobbing coming from the end of a hallway. "Buff, you o- whoa!" He ran and fell, tripping over something heavy. His eyes, having adjusted to the lack of light, noticed that it was Angel huddled in a corner, crying. But wait... what would make Angel cry?
"God, no. God, no. God, please, no," he chanted, feeling oddly numb when he turned over and saw what the thing that had tripped him was.
Willow's eyes widened in disbelief, and her mouth kept opening and closing, speechless.
In that instant, when he saw the fang marks and registered what had happened, Angel lunged for him, sending the two of them sliding across the cold stone floor. Angel slammed him against the floor, and he could see brilliant white sparks explode behind his eyelids.
"Get the hell off me, you fucking murderer!" Xander screamed in blind rage. Angel, stunned, backed off him, just as Giles and Cordelia rushed in, crosses held high. Oz wheeled in Willow a moment later, and she was the next to see Buffy's broken body. Her eyes caught his, and he nodded slightly. She bit her lip and shook her head, as if willing the terrible truth to go away.
Cordelia, by comparison, appeared calm and composed. But her eyes held hurt and betrayal, and her lips were pressed tightly together, to keep herself from blurting out every profanity that flitted through her mind. Her fists were balled at her side, and any unsuspecting vampire would assume that she was the formidable Slayer.
"Have you any idea what a stupid thing you did, coming here by yourself?" Giles seethed, his focus away from Angel. "What would possess you to-" His eyes drifted down to the floor. Buffy. Dead. Angel. Alive. Simple math.
"You son of a bitch," he murmured casually, feeling oddly empty inside. Willow tore her eyes away from Buffy at the sound of hearing Giles swear. Any other time, she would have giggled. But her glassed-over eyes found Angel's, and when they did, she could feel some of her resolve melting away. But her pain increased.
"He has his soul again." Her voice was flat, emotionless. "He's Angel."
"And he killed Buffy."
"Know what?" Cordelia whispered, terribly glad that they'd reached their destination, because then Buffy could see what an incredible asshole Xander was. "You're fucking lucky that I'm chalking this little outburst up to grief. You're fucking lucky that I know you don't mean what you said. You're fucking lucky I love you too much to care if you meant it." She gave him her most deadliest of glares, and went to sit beside Buffy's gravestone.
"Honey, give Mrs. Summers my condolences, won't you?" Her mother asked, gazing at her sympathetically.
"You know Buffy's mom?" She asked, surprised by the information. Though she hung out with the Scoobies, she never figured her mother knew Buffy's.
"I wandered into her gallery one day. Wonderful person. So kind and friendly. I'd never met Buffy, of course, but Joyce showed me a picture of her. Lovely girl. Such a horrible thing to happen to such fine people." Cordelia smiled sadly.
"Mommy, why do good people die like this?" Her voice sounded so small and distant.
"I don't know, honey," Mrs. Chase replied honestly, giving her a hug. "Are you sure you'll be okay to drive?"
"Yeah," she sniffled, wiping the tears away on her sleeve, the black mascara blending perfectly with the black of her dress. "Yeah, I'll be good."
"Well, you be careful," her mother said softly, leaving her to the privacy of her room. "I wonder why they're having it in the night..." But Cordelia knew why. It was what Buffy had wanted. It hurt to think that Buffy knew that she might have died. Knew, and didn't tell anyone, didn't ask for help. But she must have known. Why else would she have written a will, the day before she died?
Cordelia had been surprised that Buffy had even left her anything. Granted, the Slayer herself had said that the tiara she'd gotten after being crowned Winter Princess might not mean much to the former May Queen, but she'd wanted her to have it all the same. That was when she realized that Buffy was Dead.
No one had been surprised that Buffy had wanted her funeral to be at night. She explicitly stated, that if Angel was alive, the funeral was to be held at night. Well, he was alive. He had killed her, but he was alive, and no one dared to violate Buffy's last wish.
What Cordelia was surprised to see, though, after she pulled her car into the parking lot, was the large crowd of people that had gathered. Giles had told her that it was a private affair; apart from Joyce and the Scoobies, the only other attendees were supposed to have been Paige and Kendra's Watcher.
Yet there were more than just eight people. Upon closer inspection, Cordelia could see that the group was comprised mainly of demons. Oz had informed her that since this was a triple Slayer burial, demons had come from not only Sunnydale and Los Angeles to pay their respects to the formidable warriors, but had come from as far away as Boston and Jamaica, and even places like Russia and Asia, where neither of the three Slayers had been before.
Giles had always said that Halloween was the one time of year that the forces of darkness took a break. Once again, Buffy broke that rule. After the service, the demons were as solemn as humans. One tall, red, skeletal-looking creature shook hands with Giles and Mr. Zabuto, commending them on training such competent warriors. One green-blue fish-like creature even pulled out a handkerchief for Willow, after she broke down again.
"Your daughter," an orange, fiery demon spoke, its French accent prominent. "My brozzer 'ad ze plezure to engage in combat wiz 'er. A formidable opponent. We fire wraiths are not so easy to keel."
Cordelia saw Angel making his way to the edge of the crowd and stalked over to him. He saw her coming and ran into the edge of the woods. Enraged, she followed, stupidly. She had not realized that he'd lured her there. At least, not until she felt him sink his fangs into her neck.
"Leave her." The voice belonged not to Xander or Giles or Willow or even Oz, but to Joyce. Xander scooped up her limp form in his arms, and though she was suffering from major blood loss, she could hear the pain and fury in Joyce's voice. "Go. Now."
"B-but she said to go," Angel muttered, not even talking to them. His gaze was to the far left, and all heads turned to see who he was talking to. "No, no, I won't 'finish the job'. I must have been crazy to listen to you in the first place..." Puzzled glances traded through the group. It sounded as though he were having a conversation with someone. But no one was there...
"Buffy, you can't be serious!" Angel exploded, and all faces paled.
"Wh-what did you say?" Joyce gripped Giles' arm tightly, for fear of fainting.
"Huh? What? ...No, I heard you. I'm talking to- why are you all staring at me like that?"
"You mean besides the fact that you're a cold-blooded killer, not to mention looney tunes?" Xander asked sarcastically.
"Can't...can't you see her?" Angel asked uncertainly.
"God, Angel, cut the mind games," Willow snapped. "She's...you have no right to...you can't just..." And she burst into tears. Angel's eyes widened as he realized no one else could see the supposed apparition of the dead Slayer, then bolted into the darkness.
"Good riddance," Cordelia heard Xander mutter, before she lapsed into quiet.
"Buffy, things would be so much better if you were here," she whispered, tracing the letters on the stone. So absorbed was she in her thoughts that she didn't notice when Xander came to sit beside her, nor when he wrapped his arms around her in apology. In fact, she didn't even feel it.
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