***An Abandoned Church, Sunnydale, 2002***
“And with the blessing of the holy ones, thou shalt be joined,” Giles intoned, holding a book in one hand and a cross in the other.
He waved it around in a vague motion, and said, “The holy ones bless you.”
Willow, Xander, Oz and Cordelia repeated, “They bless you,” and held up their objects.
Willow held a small vial of Holy Water which she sprinkled on Buffy’s ring while Xander held it. Oz had a chain with several religious symbols threaded on it, and Cordelia was holding a burning torch made of some arcane herbs. Giles waved the cross again, and the four placed their objects on the ground before Buffy and Angel, Cordelia extinguishing the torch in a bowl of Holy Water. Xander handed the ring to Giles, and stepped back.
“May this union be blessed, and may their souls be joined for eternity!” Giles cried, and motioned to the pair to hold up their hands.
They did, fingers entwined, and Giles slipped the rings onto each of their fingers. Angel pulled his hand out of the way of Buffy’s ring, as the Holy Water burned, and she shifted her grip to avoid hurting him. Then Giles raised a silver dagger, and brought it down, thrusting it through their intertwined hands. Buffy’s blood mingled with Angel’s, and they cried out in pain, then pleasure.
“I can feel you,” Buffy said with delight, suddenly able to sense Angel’s mind, surrounding her like a dark protective cloud.
“It’s so... wonderful,” she said, as her mind and soul merged with his.
“With this bond, the demon shall be banished. May the love hold forever.”
Giles gestured to Oz, who stepped forward rather nervously and said, “Uh, do you Angel, take this woman Buffy to be your lawfully wedded wife, in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, till death do you part?”
“I do,” Angel replied, barely listening, as he explored his connection with Buffy.
“Do you Buffy, take this man Angel, to be your lawfully wedded husband in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, till death do you part?”
Angel thought, and Buffy heard him.
< I don’t want to leave > she replied mentally.
Angel told her, sending a mental picture of them together later that night.
Buffy thought, shocked.
he asked her, managing to convey misery, doubt and humour in one short mental question.
Buffy pulled away from Angel and shook her head to bring her back to the real world.
“Sorry, could you repeat that?”
“Uh, do you wanna marry him?” Oz said, giving up.
“I do.”
“Great. I now pronounce you man and wife. You may-”
“I know,” Angel said, interrupting. He bent his head and kissed Buffy, their first real kiss since their fateful night together so long ago.
“Uh, guys? Guys? We kinda want to have our turn now,” Xander said. Buffy and Angel ignored him.
“They’ve done it again.”
“I knew giving them the power to read each others’ thoughts was a bad idea,” Giles grumbled.
“Oz. Marry us anyway,” Cordelia ordered, pushing the lip-locked couple out of the way. “And cut through the crap,” she added.
“Okay. Do you, Xander, take Cordelia to be your lawfully wedded wife, for better for worse, till death do you part?”
“I do.”
“Do you, Cordelia, take Xander?”
“Of course I do.”
“Okay. I now pronounce your vows renewed. Feel free to enjoy.”
“Well, a tad unconventional, but it’ll do,” Giles remarked.
When Angel and Buffy finally returned to reality they left Sunnydale soon after. Giles was sad to see them go, but he knew they wanted to see the world, to explore, to have fun and experience many new things. And that was hard to do in Sunnydale.
The pair became the most successful Slayer and Vampire team in history (actually, the only one!) but Buffy’s record was amazing. She defeated, on average, more demons, monsters, witches, creatures of darkness and vampires each year of her nine-year stint as the Slayer than most Slayers did in their entire career.
***Rome, 2006***
When she turned twenty-five, she was sent a letter from the Watchers, informing her that she had exceeded her generation, and was no longer required. Apparently, although it had never happened before, if a Slayer did survive past her twenty-fifth birthday there was a manual override, so to speak, enabling the Watchers to activate the next Slayer themselves.
Buffy, to most people’s surprise, did not lose her powers when the ritual was performed.
Instead, there were currently three Slayers, the one in Kendra’s line, the fifth since Kendra had died, the one who replaced Buffy, and Buffy herself, although she was not an active Slayer.
A week after she was deactivated, Buffy received an e-mail from Willow, informing her that Giles had died, aged-fifty-two, his role as Buffy’s Watcher finally over.
Buffy and Angel had settled down in Europe and spent the next three years living peacefully together.
***Los Angeles, 2009***
Then they received another e-mail from Willow, this time to tell them that Oz had died, stabbed to death in an heroic attempt to stop a thief from attacking a little girl. The girl survived, but the attacker had been using a silver kitchen knife, part of a silver cutlery set he had stolen from the girl’s parents.
When Buffy and Angel returned, both anxious to comfort their friend, they discovered Xander had beat them to it.
His life was also not going well. He was divorced from Cordelia, who’d married a wealthy Duke of something or other, and, by some clever legal trick, he was left with nothing from the multi-million dollar company he'd helped to create.
Both suffering, Xander and Willow found comfort from each other, and both came to depend on the others love and support. Willow had never married Oz, and explained to Xander that she would never marry anyone else, but he accepted this, and the two remained together for the rest of their lives, although unmarried, and with no children.
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