Disclaimer: Buffy and Co. don't belong to me. You know the drill, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, WB, etc...
*Author's Note* This is for all of us who HATED how Angel died in the actual show. He still dies, but I think this is a better ending.
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Buffy's eyes watered with unshed tears as she looked into Angel's now-human eyes. Angelus was gone, forever this time. But Angel looked at her with such sorrow, pleading with his eyes for her to kill him anyway. Buffy shuddered and stifled a sob.
"Buffy, please." Angel whispered.
"I...can't." She said, her voice breaking.
They were sitting in The Bronze, at a table all by themselves. Xander and Willow were at a table with Cordelia and Oz. Everyone else was having the time of their lives. Buffy and Angel were both near tears. Suddenly, Angel got up and went to talk to the D.J. When he came back, the sorrow seemed to be etched deeper than ever in his warm brown eyes.
The D.J.'s jovial voic rang out over the microphone. "This next song is dedicated to Buffy, from Angel." Sound Garden blared over the speakers:
Stretch the bones over my skin, stretch the skin over my head, I'm going to the Holy Land, Stretch the marks over my eyes, Burn the candles deep inside, Yeah, you know where I'm coming from.
Give up to Greed, you don't have to feed me, Give up to Fate, you don't have to need me, So let it go, let it go, let it go, won't you let it, Drown me in you, drown me in you, drown me in you.
Slip down darkness to the mouth, Damn the water, burn the wine, I'm going home for the very last time.
So throw it away, you don't have to take me, Make no mistakes, I am what you make me, So let it go, let it go, let it go, won't you let it, Drown me in you, drown me in you, drown me in you.
I see you turn around and burning down, The feeling starts to sink, I feel the hurt surround me, Please dissolve me, She's resolved to be.
Heal my wounds without a trace, and seal my tomb without my face, I'm going to the lonely place.
Give up to Greed, you don't have to feed me, Give up to Fate, you don't have to need me, So let it go, let it go, let it go, won't you let it, Drown me in you, drown me in you, drown me in you...
Tears were running freely down Buffy's cheeks as the song ended.She stared at Angel, desperately wishing that she could erase all of his pain. He was calm, collected. He was asking her to kill him, and because of everything that she owed him, because he had saved her life so many times, she owed him his own life, at least.
She nodded silently and stood. Angel followed suit. They walked out into the night and Buffy took his hand in her own. They walked to his apartment.
Standing in Angel's living room, Buffy's heart began to pound painfully. Her stomach hurt and her throat was tight.
Angel caressed her face with his hand and gave her a submissive smile. Her kissed her and whispered, "I love you."
Buffy sobbed and wrapped her arms around him, holding him as if he would be wrenched from her grasp at any second.
"You have to." Angel said softly, reaching behind him on the table and handing her a stake.
She took it in her trembling hand, fearful that she was shaking too much to kill him on the first try, and dreading causing him to suffer more than was absolutely necessary.
"God...Angel, I love you." Buffy sobbed, positioning the stake over his heart.
Angel leaned forward and kissed her one last time, and then, as if sensing that she was about to back out of it, he grabbed her wrist and forced the stake into his own chest.
He gasped as the stake penetrated his heart, and then he looked into Buffy's eyes and smiled. "I love you." He whispered once more, and then he crumbled into a pile of dust at Buffy's feet.
Buffy fell to her knees beside his remains. Unable to hold her emotions in check, she sobbed hysterically.
Angel's ring was perched in the middle of the pile of ashes. Buffy picked it up and put it on the chain with the cross he had given her. With his cross and his ring laying across her chest, near her heart, the pain was too much.
She stumbled out into the night. Almost before she was out of Angel's apartment, she came across a vampire. He snarled at her and she smiled. "Take me."she whispered.
The vampire looked puzzled, but he wasn't about to pass up a good meal. He took her in his arms almost gently and buried his fangs in her neck. She moaned and closed her eyes. A few moments later, she went limp in his arms, and he dropped her body on the street and moved on to find his next victim.
The next day, the newspaper headlines screamed, "Teenage Girl Found Dead, Drained of Blood."
No one knew what had happened. Giles, Willow, and Xander were at a loss. Giles had been the one to go looking for her that night. He had found her body in the street near Angel's apartment. It was clear that she hadn't even put up a fight. There were dried tear tracks on her pale cheeks. Even in death, she was beautiful, en expression of sublime peace frozen on her face.
Xander and Willow later found Angel's ashes in his apartment. It was clear then. Angel had forced Buffy to kill him, and then, unable to live without her love, Buffy had gone to join him, wherever he had gone after he died.
The day after Buffy's funeral, Giles went back to Englan and resigned as Watcher. Xander dropped out of school and Willow refused to eat. Joyce Summers had a nervous breakdown and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The world was empty and barren without Buffy Summers. The impact of her death had injured more people than she could ever have imagined.
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