FF: Requiem 3/3

["The Fool" <honouredfool@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Requiem 3/3

Disclaimer: As anyone with a lick of sense knows, all the BtVS/Angel characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and their sundry parteners. I own a computer which has developed a disturbing rattle. :(

Feedback: Please. I'm having trouble with Part II so every little bit helps.

Notes: Character Death. We all saw it coming. Shyfox beta-read and saved from email limbo for which i am very grateful.


Chapter Three


"Hello Faith, how's my little girl?"

"I missed you."

"I know and I'm sorry but there's so much that needs to be done. How are you and Angel doing?"

"He thinks I'm almost ready." She looked at the old man eagerly. "Am I? AM I almost ready?"

"Maybe." He stopped as Cordelia came up behind his Slayer.

"Hey Faith." She wrapped her arms around the young slayers waist. "I love you."

"I love you too C." The Slayer pulled Cordelia's arms tighter. So this is what he meant when he said that the Queen could help Faith. Then both girls looked at him and asked at the same time, "Do you love us?"

"Of course I love you." That was all either of them had ever needed, a little honest, heartfelt love. "I have to go back now."

***

Willow and Tara lay in a quiet embrace before getting up to face yet another day of training at the insistence of Mr. Roberts. 
"What's he teaching you?" Willow asked.

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone. Owen said that only I was to know." Willow pouted. 
"That's not very nice. I don't think he meant you couldn't tell me." Tara affixed Willow with her own version of the "resolve face" <I wish I hadn't taught her that> Willow thought.

"He said no one." Tara softened her look and pulled Willow tighter to her chest. "I love you. More than anything else in the world." Willow's pout collapsed in the face of such an onslaught. 
"Cheater." She kissed her lover lightly, "I love you too."

***

"You understand what you must do?"

"Yes." 
"And why you must do it?"

"If I don't he kill Willow. It's his destiny."

"Tara, you have no idea how difficult this is for me. If there was any other way I'd take it. He must be bound once and for all, if there's any chance that he'll return to the Dark?If I lose Willow we'll lose everything. If there was any other way.." 
"There isn't. You must not blame yourself for this. Personally I can't imagine a better way to die. I'm giving my life for the woman I love and in the service of the Light. All I ask is to be remembered."

"Until the day I die you poor dear girl."

"I have to prepare." 
"Tara I-"

"I know, Goodbye Owen."

"I love you girl."

"I said I know."


"Oh looky here! It's daddy!"

"Shut up Spike. I could still kill you without a second thought."

"Now that's no way to speak to a man in his-Ahhhh?" Both Vampires doubled over in pain.

"Oh Dammit! What is it?" Spike yelled to his sire.

"I think it's-Yup get ready for the worst experience of your life Spike"

"What the hell does-Oh God!" a cry of anguish ripped from Spike's chest. "What have I done?" Angel stood over the fallen vampire.

"Welcome back to your soul Spike." He bent over and picked up the sobbing shell that was once William the Bloody and carried him out the door of the crypt.

>From her hiding spot in the nearby bushes Tara heard Spike's initial wailing and watched as Angel carried Spike into the night. Her last thought was "It worked, I saved her. Oh Beloved it worked."

***

Willow burst into Giles' house, nearly taking the front door off its hinges. "Where is she?" Willow screamed lunging towards Mr. Roberts. "She hasn't been home in two days! Her parents said they haven't seen her either. What did you do with her?"

"I'm sorry Willow. She left you this." He handed her a small envelope. 
"Beloved" Willow read on the front then tore it open and started to read quietly to herself. "I gave this to Owen to give to you after my task was complete. Dearest Willow, what I have done I did for you. I love you with all my heart and all my soul and this love will guide me to whatever waits beyond. You must not give up though. I know that when we were together there was always another with us, one that you loved more than me. Don't worry I don't hate you for it, you and Buffy were meant to be together, you always have been. I'm just happy that I got to bask in a piece of your love before I was called. Tell everyone I love them. Don't blame Owen, he was just doing his job. I love you. Tara." 
"Oh no," a tiny gasp escaped Willow's throat, "Oh Goddess no! Oh my baby!" Buffy and Xander ran to their friend's side. 
"What? What happened?" asked Buffy as Xander enveloped Willow in a tight embrace.

"She's gone," the redhead sobbed. "She's dead! He sent her to die!" Buffy turned to where Mr. Roberts stood. 
"You sent her to die?" she shouted the question at him. Tears welled in her eyes, her voice fell to a whisper. "You sent her to die?" She lashed out at him as much for his own guilt as for hers. She had been so jealous of Tara in recent weeks. Jealous to the point of hatred.

"It was necessary. I--"

"Necessary!" Buffy returned to shouting. "Necessary!"

"Buffy please," interceded Giles, "this isn't the time."

"No Rupert it's alright." Mr. Roberts sighed "Yes it was necessary. Tara understood this. She went willingly. I didn't tell her what was at stake before she said yes."

"To do what, exactly?"

"To bind Spike's soul to him?forever."

"You traded Tara for Spike?" Buffy seethed as she stepped threateningly closer. "You traded my best friend's happiness for Spike?" This last spat out like a piece of sewer rat.

"Dammit! Do you think this was easy for me? Would you like to know what happened to me the first time I came into this room? The fresh young faces of four young people who I'd never met before and one, one face which I haven't forgotten in one thousand years of trying."

Buffy's advance slowed, a question appeared on her face.

"When I left the Council I made the mistake of thinking my role in the war was over. I moved to a small village and married a beautiful young woman. We had a daughter, my wife died in labour. For twenty years I loved my little girl with all my heart, a love you have no concept of, a love only a parent can have. Then one night my Master called me away to quell some brush fire that was too far from the Slayer for her to be any good. I was forced to leave my daughter behind, alone and unprotected." Mr. Roberts paused, his voice seemed to have failed him. "I went and came back as fast as I could but it wasn't fast enough." Tears sprung to his eyes and began to roll down his face. "My enemy found her and murdered her. I was at most two hours too late to save her, Her blood was still wet on the wall where he left me a message.

"I cut a swath across the world. I slaughtered every soldier of the Dark within twenty miles of my village then set across the world, killing every demon who crossed my path. I must have killed close to one thousand of his best soldiers before I stopped. I asked him centuries later why he hadn't used her to try and turn me, if it was worth his losses. He said it was more entertaining for him to have murdered her." By this time everyone had started to listen to his story, even Willow, her own cries reduced to a soft sob. "When I saw Tara for the first time I thought to myself "Yes! This time I'll be here to protect her. No harm will come to her while I draw breath. Then it clicked that first night when I followed the three of you home. The Sacrifice of Love.

"I taught her to use her love for Willow to bind Spike forever. He cannot lose his soul to the Dark. If she hadn't he would've killed Willow, it was his destiny. Tara died to save Willow, in doing so she saved us all."

Mr. Roberts turned and stumbled out past his stunned audience into the courtyard. He stumbled about ten paces before falling to the ground. "Oh gods! What have I done to be twice punished? Why her again! You could've taken me, I love them all, more than life itself! Oh Bridgit-Oh my daughter! My life!"

Willow pulled out of Xander's arms and ran to the fallen warrior. Kneeling beside him she wrapped her little arms around the old man's heaving chest and together they wept for their dead.

***

Hours later the two walked to where Tara's body lay, a beatific smile on her face. Mr. Roberts bent over and gingerly picked her up with a tenderness that made Willow want to hold him forever. She had lost the woman she loved but he blamed himself for killing his own daughter twice. He carried Tara into the Crypt and laid her on a stone table in the middle which cat in the middle. Willow looked on as Mr. Roberts chanted over Tara's body. As she watched the color returned to her face and the jeans and t-shirt she had been wearing were replaced with a beautifully wrought shroud. 
"It's the same one I--" he choked on the memory.

"I know. It's beautiful, she would've loved it." She put her arm on the man's shoulder, "It's not your fault you know, she went willingly." They were difficult words to say, Willow wanted to blame this man for so much but she couldn't.

As they stood there looking down at her Giles, Buffy, Xander and Anya entered the crypt. "We called her parents. They said they'd be here soon. Tara's father was comforted by the circumstances." Tears welled in Giles' eyes. 
They formed a circle around Tara's body. Buffy looked down at her face. "She looks beautiful Will, so at peace." 
"Owen did it." Buffy looked at the silently weeping man, standing just outside the circle. 
"I'm sorry for what I said. I was just..."

"I know child. It's alright to be angry with me. You were just trying to protect Willow."

"Hey," Xander perked his hears, "what's that music?"

"Mozart's Requiem." Noted Giles absently.

"Where's it coming from?" asked Anya. "Oh." She said as Buffy pointed to where Mr. Roberts was chanting softly. Willow walked over and joined him, adding her "voice" to his. 
"It's beautiful" said Xander softly.

In the evening the mourners were joined by Tara's parents, Willow's parents and Joyce. Tara's father spoke over her body. "My daughter was a young woman of very few words and very deep feelings. She never said it but I could tell from her face when she spoke of you all that these few years were the happiest of her life." He choked back his tears and continued. "She loved Willow with all her heart, and the rest of you with most of it." He paused again. As he did Mr. Roberts came up and knelt before him. 
"It's my fault," he whispered, tears streaming down his cheeks. "you have lost your daughter because of me." Tara's father put his hand on Mr. Roberts shoulder. "She said you would blame yourself. She said to make sure you didn't. She went willingly Owe, she went with love in her heart." Tara's father bent and whispered something in his ear. Mr. Roberts nodded and stood up, taking her father's place at Tara's head and cleared his throat. "Some of you know the story of my daughter, who was so very much like our beloved Tara. I told Tara about my daughter when I explained her task to her. I told her of the music I enchanted ever her body when she died and Tara asked that I make it sing again for her when she passed from this world into the next.. Here you are my beloved pupil, and you beloved daughter, gone long but never forgotten." Instead of opening his mouth to sing as a normal person would Mr. Roberts made a quick gesture on Tara's forehead and stood back. The most beautiful and mournful music ever heard by human ears filled the chamber. Willow stepped forward to stand beside Mr. Roberts and made the gesture he did on the prone form of her lover's body. Another voice joined n harmony with the music, mourning the dead girl and her twin. As the music went on Angel and Spike materialized in the door and slowly made their way to Willow's side. When the music stopped Spike dropped to his knees in front of Willow. 
"I'm sorry" he wept. "Gladly would I have given my life for her's." Willow stood, a look of torment on her face. She reached out her hand and held it over hovering over his head. She reached down and grabbed his hair, not in rage but in pain for her dead love. 
"No Spike, you have a more important destiny to fulfill. You will live to serve the Light, be its unceasing servant. And remember."

==========================================================


Here ends Requiem, stay tuned for more in the next part of which i haven't named yet, in this series i also haven't named. It might take a while because i've developed a real love/hate relationship with it and can't decide what to do.


End of Part one. 




The Fool

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"Want beer. Like beer. Beer good."

--Buffy in "Beer Bad"

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