The Wolf, the Ram and the Hart: Sartre
by redmoon
Sartre

Life begins on the other side of despair.

Buffy let out a shuddering breath. She stood, her eyes moving aimlessly over the floor as she turned. Willow watched her in the sharp green light from the flare she held. The Slayer turned away from the ashes, from the tunnel down which Spike had disappeared. She slowly began to make her way back the way they had come.

“Buffy,” Willow said, caught between two worlds. “... Where are you going?” Was all she could think to ask. She started after her friend, leaving both their backpacks. She had to physically take her by the shoulder before Buffy would even look at her.

“It’s over, Will,” the said, her face sagging with the blankness of defeat. Her eyes had lost the spark they had had before this had all started. There was no fight left. “I’m going to find Dawn,” she said quietly, turning and starting back into the dark.

Willow glanced back in the direction Spike had gone; deeper into this place. “Buffy,” there was a commanding air to the witch’s voices, not enough, however, to stop her friend. “We have to keep moving forward.” She took Buffy by the arm, harder this time. “We came here to fight these guys, we’re not leaving yet.”

“This is different,” Buffy said sullenly, trying to describe it, “who are we to think we could do this?” She let out a despairing laugh, “the challengers and the champion?” she pulled her arm from Willow’s grasp. “Is that what we are?” She turned from Willow to the corridor and back. “I could just as easily have taken Xander and Faith,” she admitted. “I can’t believe how stupid I was!” She rubbed her palm across her pale face, pulling a strand of blonde hair from her eye. She turned back to Willow with something like determination. “I’m getting the others...” she snatched her rucksack from the floor, “and we’re going home.”

“B- but what about Spike?” Willow thumbed the other direction. “He can’t take on the Senior Partners by himself,” there was less concern in her voice for Spike than she had intended, but felt it was appropriate.

“He’s the champion,” she Slayer said coldly. “He can take care of himself.” And she disappeared into the darkness, much as Spike had moments earlier.

Willow looked back and forth, the imminent need to decide closing around her. There was a moment of panic as she considered being left here by herself. Her flare hissed loudly, the smell of the ash and burning chemical becoming very quickly oppressive. She shuddered as she looked back and forth into either darkness.

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