Fragments: How To Bring Back Buffy

[annelise@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

"Yes, I'm mad. I have a kooky screw loose. I have a certificate to 
prove it. Nyah!" (Well, an email off Kirayoshi, but close enough.)

Anne-Lise.

--

"So," Willow stared thoughtfully at Dawn. "What exactly are you 
doing?"
"Resurrecting mum," Dawn said.
"Er, you *do* realise that dark magic is dangerous?" Willow raised 
her eyebrows in concern.
Dawn blinked. "Um, you don't seem to give a damn! I saw you hex 
everything in sight when Buffy died."
"Yes, well, I'm older and wiser than you!" Willow cried, crossing 
her fingers behind her back. "Anyway, why ressurect your mum?"
"Oh..." Dawn scratched the back of her head. "I've already done it 
six times already, and I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm hoping 
this time, she'll be coherent enough to tell me where she got the 
cool Nigerian mask from."
Willow frowned. "The mask that raises the dead?" she asked.
"That's the one!" Dawn said, brightly.
"All the dead?" Willow pushed the point.
Dawn shrugged. "Once Buffy's up, she can dismember the rest."
"Oh." Willow tried to spot the flaw in this plan. "Go for it!"

*

"Lasa orbita sa fie vasul care-i va transporta, sufletul la el."
Shadows crept menacingly at the periphery of her vision as the 
litany spewed onward, gathering momentum. Last page now. Willow 
closed her eyes. She didn't need to see the words anymore. They were 
indelibly written in searing letters of fire across the tableaux of 
her mind. The Orb of Thesulah glowed, sparked, then winked out.
Suddenly, it was all over. She'd done it. She'd brought back 
Buffy's soul from the land of the dead. Unfortunately, she'd been 
unable to retrieve Buffy's original body.
"Meow!" said Miss Kitty, angrily.

*

Buffy stared down at the magical device she held in her hand. Ever 
since it'd split Xander into two component parts, she knew she'd have 
a use for it. She'd split herself so many times now, and joined back 
all the bits she wanted to keep, that the Buffy she'd sacrificed was 
the part of herself she described as "Miss Suicidal: Death is my 
Gift." She laid a wreath for the most useless part of her psyche, and 
took a step back.
"She saved the world. A lot" she read aloud, and walked around to 
the other side of the stone which continued, "of people thought her a 
crazy, suicidal bint. Signed, Spike."


*

Buffy stood at the top of the platform, and looked into Dawn's 
worried eyes. "Shut up, little sis!" she cried. Dawn shut up. "This 
is my chance for redemption. I owe it to B."
"But you'll be killed!" Dawn wailed.
Buffy's head shook. "Everything'll be five by five," she 
claimed. "You'll see. I'm sure there's enough Summers' blood in you 
for Willster to fix up my old bod. That is, if she can take a break 
for five minutes from munchin' carpet!"
Faith, in Buffy's body, grinned evilly.
"See you all in Hell!" she thought, and dived into the energy vortex.

*

"People once believed," Willow said, staring at the large Crow 
tapping at the top of Buffy's grave, "that when someone dies, a crow 
carries that soul to the land of the dead." 
Xander and Giles somehow stood closer together, without having 
seemed to move. 
"But sometimes," Willow continued, "something so bad happens, that a 
terrible sadness is carried along with it. And the soul can't rest." 
The crow tapped harder. Giles' knees shook slightly. 
"And sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong 
things right."
As soon as Willow finished speaking, a gloved hand shot up through 
the dirt in front of Buffy's tomb.
"See?" Willow exclaimed brightly. "I told you so."
Giles patted her on the head, and gave her a sugar cube.
"Yes," he said. "Very well done."

*

"Come on Mr. Mallory!" Rembrandt shouted to Quinn. "The portal is 
closing!" The fat old professor jumped into the swirling vortex and 
slid into an alternative universe.
Quinn picked up the body of the fallen Slayer, killed by The Master 
before he'd had a chance to save her, and followed the professor into 
the portal.
In the middle of the Slide, he felt a strange rush of displaced 
matter as a black car driven by a vampire, with a girl dressed like a 
foreign princess screaming her head off in the front seat, rushed by 
and collided with him.
Unable to keep his grip on the fallen Slayer, he let go and cried 
in anguish as her body flew from his grasp and into another timeline.
His cries of grief stopped as another Slayer, almost identical, 
except for the fact she looked shocked and was still breathing, 
landed in his arms. Unfortunately, she'd never met him in her 
reality, as he found out to his chagrin when he tried to cop a feel.