AN: I don't own any of the [many] lines I "borrowed" from "Graduation Day, Part Two." Just like I don't own the characters. *sigh*
Wesley coughed and straightened his jacket. Mentally preparing himself for the imminent verbal abuse that he was sure to receive, he took a few steps toward the double doors. When he looked in the windows, he had to stop in order to breathe. He told himself that he wasn’t stalling, he just wanted to know what he was walking into. He could see Giles standing to the side of Willow, Oz, and Xander, who were all seated at the table. Cordelia stood off to the side. Wesley could not see Buffy, and assumed she was standing farther to the side.
“I’m not saying it’s not crazy,” Xander was saying, “but it’s this or the humus offensive.”
“He’ll never see it coming,” Oz said in a monotone.
I will never understand Americans, especially not teenagers, Wesley complained to himself. Then there was a lull in the conversation, and he couldn’t put this off any longer. Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the double doors.
No one immediately acknowledged his presence, so he spoke. “Whatever you’re doing, you haven’t an enormous amount of time.”
Xander swivelled in his chair, seemingly indifferent to the fact that the chair was meant to have more than two feet on the ground at once. “Hey, it’s Mr. States-the-Obvious.”
Giles took a step forward, managing to make the simple action of taking off his glasses look threatening. “The Council is not welcome here. Buffy does not work for them anymore, and neither do I.”
“I’m not here for the Council. Just tell me how I can help.”
“That is so classy,” Cordelia cried from where she was leaning against the bookshelves. “Isn’t he just so classy?” she implored her companions.
Wesley stood with baited breath as he waited for one of them, any of them, to respond. In the end, it was Giles who broke the silence.
“There is plenty to be done. We need all the help we can get.”
“So there is something I can do,” Wesley said, sighing with relief.
“You, Angel, and Cordelia can help me research the Ascension,” Giles replied solemnly.
Wesley turned his head at the sound of footsteps coming down the steps, only to freeze in shock at the sight that met his eyes. He had assumed that Buffy was standing there, but instead it was a very healthy-looking Angel. “Where is–” Wesley began.
“She’s not coming,” Angel interrupted, his eyes trained on the books and weapons in his hands. His tone clearly conveyed that he was not going to say anything else on the matter.
“Okay,” Xander said, a little bit too loudly, “so....Will, Oz, you guys get chemistry duty. Me, I’m going shopping.”
“Glorified donut runs?” Cordelia snarked. Xander just glared.
~~~
“No way!” Faith said as she stalked angrily towards his desk.
“Yes way,” the Mayor repeated patiently. “Now drink your milk.”
“You can’t keep me out of this fight,” Faith cried petulantly, ignoring the glass of milk he had poured for her.
“You’re injured, Faith,” he insisted. “I don’t want you to be in the thick of it.” He stood and walked around his desk to stand in front of her. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he looked into her eyes and said, “Just please stay out of the main action. Stay in the back, behind the lackeys.”
Faith swallowed a lump in her throat, and looked down at the carpet. “I just feel like I let you down is all.”
“Hey,” he whispered gently. He removed one hand from her shoulder and placed it under her chin, tipping her head up so that she was once more staring into his eyes. “You could never let me down.”
“Now, this is how it’s going to lay out,” he said to the vampires. “The transformation should begin at exactly 3:28. I'll just be finishing my speech. You know, it’s too bad you fellows have to miss that, because I think it speaks to everyone of us. I mean, heck, I’ve been working on it for a hundred years. It better be good.” He laughed shortly, then his tone became serious again. “They’ll try to run, of course, and this is when I’ll need you boys in flanking position.”
“But Sir, the sun!” a vampire protested.
“Not a problem.”
~~~
“Darkness will follow and day becomes night,” Wesley read aloud, pacing across the library. He closed the book and looked up at Angel. “A solar eclipse. Standard procedure for an Ascension.”
Angel nodded, taking that in. “That puts me back into the game.”
Wesley took off his glasses and began to clean them. “Do you know what you’re going to do?”
Angel frowned slightly, thinking about the answer to Wesley’s question. “I need you to get something for me.”
~~~
“You come up through the sewers here. The important thing is containment. I’ll need to feed. It’s crucial in the first few minutes to sustain the change. What does that mean?” The Mayor shook his finger at his undead minions. “No snacking. I see blood on your lips, it’s a visit to the wood shed for you boys. Kill. Don't feed.”
~~~
“There,” Oz said as he and Willow bent over various books and papers strewn across the table.
“Fun with chemistry,” Willow said as she read the page he handed to her. “Now we just need Xander to come back with the materials.”
“Who’s going to stoke it up?” Oz wondered aloud.
They both looked at Giles as he walked down the steps. Noticing their gazes, he took off his glasses with a sigh. “I suppose it should be I. It's strangely fitting in a grotesque fashion.”
~~~
“Remember: fast and brutal,” the Mayor instructed. “It’s going to be a whole new world come nightfall, don’t want to weaken now. And boys,” he said as the vampires started to leave the office, “let’s watch the swearing.” Then they were gone, and it was just him and Faith.
~~~
Xander stuck his head inside a classroom and spotted his quarry talking to two other girls. “Harmony, listen,” he said as he approached her, “I need to talk to you for a second.”
She stared at him incredulously. “You mean in front of other people?”
Xander sighed. Why did he get stuck with Harmony duty?
~~~
Willow walked through the crowded halls, and found him trying on his maroon robe.
“Are they serious?” Percy was complaining to his friends. “I’m gonna look stupid in this.”
“Percy!” Willow called as she approached him from behind.
He turned around to look at her. “Do I look stupid in this? Be honest,” he implored her.
“You look great,” she assured him. “You got a sec?” Their impending doom had to take precedence over the male ego.
~~~
Wesley handed Angel the item the vampire had wanted. Angel took it with only a nod to acknowledge the Watcher’s assistance. Wesley sighed, and moved back into the stacks. He paused as he saw her standing with her back to him, quietly removing books from the shelves and placing them in a box.
“Cordelia.”
“Y-yes?” she said, spinning around to face him.
Wesley looked down at his hands, then back up to her beautiful face. “You know that...when this is over....”
“Yes.” Her eyes silently urged him to continue.
“Well, should we prevail, I’ll be going back to England.”
“I know,” she whispered as she turned back to the shelf.
Wesley shifted his weight awkwardly from foot to foot, unsure how to proceed. “With Buffy no longer working for the council, there really is no place for me here.”
Cordelia turned around and took a small step closer to him. “I guess not.”
“No reason to stay,” he murmured, taking a step forward.
“No,” she said, inching towards him.
“No,” he said, taking off his glasses. “No cause to hope that I might be needed.”
“Needed?”
“Or...wanted.”
“Wanted!” Cordelia said quietly but forcefully.
Then his lips were against hers, her hands were exploring his back, their noses were rubbing together. After a few seconds, Wesley withdrew. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, looking away from her. She wiped the back of her hand across her lips, then dove into a second attempt. Several seconds later, they both pulled back, and Wesley found himself wondering exactly what he had been thinking.
“Good luck in England,” she said cheerily.
“Yes, um, I’ll drop you a line sometime,” he promised, putting his glasses back on.
“That’ll be neat.”
“Yes,” he muttered before turning back to the bookshelves and the formidable task before them.
~~~
“Okay, put these with the others,” Oz instructed Larry and Jonathon. “Don’t touch anything.”
Jonathon put the last of the sacks in the grocery cart. “W-what do we do then?”
“Nothing,” Oz said.
“Just relax,” Willow offered with a nervous smile. “Have a good time.”
“O-okay,” Jonathon stammered.
Larry glanced from side to side, then said, “Okay, it’s clear. Let’s move.” With that, he began pushing the loaded cart as fast as he could while Jonathon pulled the van door shut, leaving Willow and Oz alone in the nearly empty interior.
“I guess that’s it. Won’t be long now,” Willow whispered with a sigh.
“You nervous?” Oz said, his concern for her surprisingly evident.
Willow swallowed. “Only in a terrified way,” she squeaked.
“We’ll make it through this,” Oz assured her, taking her hand in his.
“Are you sure?” she asked anxiously, but inside she was reveling in the sensation of his callused hand wrapped around her own.
“I sound pretty sure, don’t I?” he replied with a slight frown.
“Yeah,” Willow said with a smile.
“Then I must be sure.”
Willow’s smile faded as she processed his words. “Is that just a comforting way of not answering the question?”
Oz blinked and shrugged. She leaned into him and their lips met in a gentle kiss. The werewolf reached up to run his fingers through her hair. Willow pulled away and opened her eyes.
“How long till graduation?”
“A little while,” he answered, capturing her lips in another kiss.
~~~
Giles walked out of the stacks and into the main level of the library, more weapons in his arms.
“Did you get what you need?”
Giles placed the weapons on top of the ever-expanding pile. “Yes,” he said, turning to the speaker. “Did you?”
“Yes.”
Giles watched, fascinated, as the vampire sat in one of the library chairs and stared at the cloth-covered object in his hands.
“Is that going to be enough?”
It took Giles a few seconds to realize that Angel was referring to the weapons.
“It will have to do,” the ex-Watcher replied. “Honestly, I don’t know if any of this will be enough, but it is the best we can do without....” He trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence. He also knew that he didn’t need to, for the brooding vampire’s thoughts were clearly similar.
“How are you holding up?” Angel said after several long seconds.
Giles couldn’t help feeling faintly surprised by the vampire’s concern. Giles did not think he would ever be able to forget the image of his beloved Jenny lying on his bed, her blank eyes staring at him reproachfully. Why didn’t you save me? they always seemed to be saying. The Brit knew that the vampire with a soul was not responsible for the actions of his soulless counterpart, but his heart refused to acknowledge that fact. No matter how much time passed, Giles did not think that he would ever be able to see past the smirking, evil face that had destroyed his hopes and dreams.
“As well as can be expected,” Giles admitted after a few moments. He paused, and then did something that surprised both of them: he inquired after Angel’s well-being.
The vampire stared into the distance, undoubtedly thinking about a certain blonde Slayer they both held dear. “I will live.” The vampire drew in a long, unnecessary breath before continuing. “It’s hard. I wasn’t going to say goodbye. Now I won’t even get the chance to.”
Giles nodded, taking that in. He may loathe the vampire, but he would have to be blind to not see how much Angel loved Buffy, and vice versa. “If you survive this, are you going to stay on the Hellmouth?”
Angel did not look at the librarian. “I don’t know,” he said, slowly removing the white cloth from the object in his hands. “All I know is that I have to do this...for her.”
Giles found himself staring at the blood-stained knife in the vampire’s hands. Yes, he said to himself, feeling new determination surge through his veins, we will do this. For her.
~~~
Snyder watched impatiently as the students filed into their seats. When the music was done, he approached the podium.
“Congratulations to the class of 1999,” he spoke into the microphone. “You all proved more or less adequate. This is a time of celebration, so sit still and be quiet.” His eyes roved over the maroon-clad students, and he noted with no small amount of satisfaction that Summers was absent. “Spit out that gum,” he said to Harris in a low voice. “Please welcome our distinguished guest speaker: Richard Wilkins III. I saw that gesture. You see me after graduation.”
Snyder turned to the side and withdrew, clapping, as the Mayor stepped forward.
~~~
Willow rushed into her seat as the applause died down. She gazed at the empty seat beside her, and she turned around, her eyes seeking Oz’s. He met her gaze, and she felt bolstered by his love. She gave him a small smile, and then turned back around. She could do this.
“Well,” the Mayor began way too happily. But then, Willow supposed that if turning into a giant snake demon was his life goal, then he would be happy. “What a day this is! A special day. Today is our centennial: the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale, and I know what that means to all you kids: not a darn thing. Because today something much more important happens: today you all graduate from high school. Today all the pain, all the work, all the excitement is finally over. And what's a hundred years of history compared to that? You know what kids?”
Willow found her attention drifting as the Mayor continued to speak. She smiled sadly as she imagined Buffy complaining about the speech. Her friend had not been eager to sit through the long ceremony and listen to long speeches just to get a piece of paper. Man, just ascend already, Willow said to herself.
~~~
Behind the bored teachers, anxious students, and proud parents, Faith watched the proceedings from the shadows of the high school, and she couldn’t help smirking a little at the irony of the situation. She was the Bad Slayer, the high school drop out. And here she was at Graduation.
“For all of you it may be that there is a place in Sunnydale’s history, whether you like it or not. It's been a long road getting here. For you, for Sunnydale. There has been achievement, joy, good times...and there has been grief.”
Faith shifted uncomfortably as she listened to her boss’s words.
“There's been loss. Some people who should be here today aren’t.”
Faith felt bile rise in the back of her throat as she stared at the empty seat next to Red. She knew who was supposed to be sitting there, and she knew why the seat was empty. But was she proud? Guilty? Faith quickly stopped that line of thought and quashed those feeling back down where they came from.
“But we are.”
Damn straight.
“Journeys end. And what is a journey? Is it just distance traveled? Time spent? No. It’s what happens on the way, it’s the things that happen to you. At the end of the journey you’re not the same. Today is about change. Graduation doesn’t just mean your circumstances change, it means you do. You ascend to a higher level. Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing,” he repeated as a shadow fell across him.
Faith looked up, and she knew that everyone else was too. She felt excited as she saw that the sun was totally blocked by the moon. It was beginning.
“And so as we look back on...” The Mayor groaned with pain, but continued his speech, shuffling his index cards in his hands. “...on the events that brought us to this day....We...we must all....GYAAAAH!” he screamed in pain. “It has begun. My destiny. It’s a little sooner then I expected. I had this whole section on civic pride....But I guess we'll just skip to the big finish!”
With that said, the Mayor began to stretch and grow, his clothes bursting as they could no longer contain him. His flesh struggled to contain the alien thing that was inside him, but it too burst. The faculty abandoned their seats and ran, as did some of their parents. If Faith had been thinking about it, she would have been surprised that the students remained where they were. But Faith only looked on as the man that was the closest thing she’d ever had to a father transformed into what could only be called a giant snake. She wondered if she should be afraid of his new form, but somehow she knew that he was still the exact same man he had been not half an hour ago.
Showtime, she said to herself as he towered over the screaming student body.
~~~
TBC
AN: So this chapter was mostly filler, but I have to get the events of Graduation Day out of the way. Anyway, just because I thought this chapter was tedious to write doesn't mean that I don't want people to review!
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