Fic: The Times In Between Part 5/?

["frank_8281" <frank_8281@xxxxxxxxx>]

Author: Bob Head
Disclaimer: None of the characters below belong to me. All the BtVS 
people belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox. I'm 
just trying to have fun.
Pairing: Buffy/Willow, of course.
Spoilers: Anything up to and including the Series Finale is possible 
Rating: NC-17, mostly for language, but who knows what might happen.
Feedback: Well, Yeah! frank_8281@xxxxxxxxx   



The Times In Between


May 1st, 2004, 4:30 am 

Buffy wandered down a darkened hallway, stake in hand. She wasn't 
sure of where she was, or what she was doing there, just a sense of 
urgency telling her to hurry. The hallway was lined with doors at 
irregular intervals, a few of which Buffy had tried, only to find 
them all locked. 

Suddenly a shadow moved across the hallway, Buffy broke into a run 
trying to catch up. Again she caught sight of the shadow, only this 
time, she saw a flash of red hair as it passed near one of the few 
lights.

"Willow? Willow wait!" Buffy cried and ran faster.

She ran until her chest felt as if it would burst; yet she could 
never seem to catch up to Willow. Finally she was forced to stop and 
noticed a door that was open a bit. There was light and music in the 
room beyond, it sounded like someone was having a party. Very slowly 
Buffy eased the door open and stepped through only to find herself in 
the Bronze. 

Confused, she began moving through the crowd looking for Willow. Most 
of the people here seemed& familiar. As if she had seen them before 
somewhere. Then it hit her. These people werent people, they were 
vampires! Vampires she had slain!

`Oh this is sooo not good!' Buffy thought as she tightened her grip 
on her stake.

As she neared the table that the Scoobies had always claimed for 
themselves, she saw that it was already occupied. Her mouth tightened 
into a thin hard line when she saw by whom. The Master, Angelus, the 
Mayor, Adam, Glory, and the First Evil wearing Buffy's face and form. 
Every Big Bad she had ever faced, except for one.

The Master looked in her direction and with a smile on his face 
called, "Slayer! Come! Sit with us; you're just in time! The 
entertainment will begin soon."

"What entertainment? And aren't you dead?" Buffy asked.

"Sure he is," Angelus replied, "We're all dead. Most of us anyway."

"I'm not," said the First in Buffy's voice, "I'm just resting till 
next time."

Buffy glared at her image, "Didn't I tell you to stay out of my face?"

The First pouted, "But I like this face, it's& comfy." She said.

"Now girls," the mayor chimed in, "Please don't bicker! This is 
supposed to be a happy occasion."

"Yeah, Slay-runt, play nice or you might not get to see the show." 
Glory said with a smile.

"Again, what show?" Buffy asked.

Adam gestured to the stage, "The curtain is just rising now."

She turned to face the stage, eyes widening in horror as she saw a 
panicked looking Willow bound to a stake on top of a pile of 
kindling. "Oh my god." She said hoarsely.

Buffy tried to run to the stage only to find herself grabbed from all 
directions and immobilized. "Let me go to her!" she screamed.

"Hmm, let me think," the First rose from the table and moved to face 
Buffy, "No. You see we've figured out why you beat us all. It was 
her. Every vampire you staked, every demon you destroyed, every 
apocalypse you averted, all for her. So this is just our way of 
saying `Thank you'."

The Master whispered in her ear as she struggled to reach 
Willow. "Did you know that when they used to burn witches at the 
stake that they always mixed green wood in with the kindling? Makes 
it last longer you see& oh wait, you flunked history didn't you?"

Angelus chuckled as he called out, "Oh Dru!"

Buffy looked up to see Drusilla moving out of the wings with a torch 
in her hands, "Yes Daddy?"

She fought harder to no avail as Angelus told Drusilla, "Light that 
candle for me will you?"

Buffy could see Willow's eyes pleading for her to save her as the 
torch touched the wood& and she woke up.

She sat bolt upright in her bed, clamping her own hand over her mouth 
trying to stifle the sobs so she wouldn't wake Dawn.

`Oh god,' Buffy thought, as she tried to slow her heartbeat, `That's 
the third time this week.'

She got out of bed and stared out the window of the condo she shared 
with Dawn in Los Angeles. The initial plan had been to set up shop in 
Cleveland, then just after Willow left they'd learned that the 
collapse of the Sunnydale Hellmouth had set off a domino effect of 
some kind that had caused all the Hellmouths to collapse. That had 
caused Giles and the others to decide to change the focus of their 
mission slightly. With no Hellmouth to unleash Armageddon to worry 
about, they could concentrate more on thinning the vampire population 
and finding the rest of the new Slayers.

Buffy had left most of that to Faith, Giles and the rest of the 
newbies. She had stayed with them for a month after Willow left; then 
she had taken Dawn and enrolled her in her old school in L.A. It had 
actually been pretty funny to see the looks on some of her old 
teachers faces when they realized that Dawn was her sister. One had 
asked the younger Summers if she ever played with fire.

The condo, which was really nice, had belonged to the Council. Giles, 
being the only surviving member, was legally empowered to dispose of 
their assets as he saw fit. So he had given the condo to Buffy and 
seen to it that she received a generous stipend every month. There 
was also a trust fund set up for Dawn's education.

When Buffy had protested the lavishness of all of it; Giles had 
said, "Nonsense, you've earned every bit of this and more. Now go on, 
enjoy the fact that you're the first Slayer in history to retire."  

Not that she had really retired. She still patrolled most nights, 
sometimes with one of the new Slayer teams, more often than not 
alone. Some habits are just too ingrained to break. She had dreamt of 
Willow often since she last saw her. Most of the dreams were& nice. 
(Some were downright erotic!) But every so often this one or one very 
similar would crop up, the bad ones always ended the same though, 
with Buffy being unable to save Willow from a fiery death.

Buffy sighed as she thought, `What was that old Watcher saying that 
Giles told me? Oh yeah. Once is a bad dream, twice is a nightmare, 
and thrice is a Slayer dream. Shit. I hope a saying is ALL it is.' 
She looked at the clock and saw that it was almost six o'clock.

`Damn,' She thought `I've got to get Dawn up and moving or she's 
going to miss her flight!'

Dawn's class was taking a trip to Europe for two weeks as part of 
some cultural exchange thing. She had claimed she didn't want to go 
but Buffy knew better and had ponied up the rather exorbitant fee. It 
wasn't as if they couldn't afford it. But Dawn still wasn't used to 
her sister not being `penny pincher Buffy' all the time. Remembering 
the last time she had been involved in a `cultural exchange' the 
eldest Summers was just happy she didn't have to take a kid in Dawn's 
place.

8:30 am

After a brief argument over what length of skirt was acceptable, 
Buffy had taken Dawn to the airport and left her in the care of a 
pair of harried looking chaperones. One look at the two teachers 
trying to keep track of thirty overexcited teenagers made the Slayer 
thankful that vampires and demons were the worst things SHE had to 
deal with.

On the drive back from the airport, during which more than a few 
people blew their horns in exasperation at Buffy's somewhat& 
distracted driving style, she thought back to that day again. The day 
Willow left, Kennedy hadn't taken it well.

`Understate much, Summers?' she thought. `Trashing every stick of 
furniture in not one but TWO hotel rooms is just a tad more than not 
taking it well. Not to mention our little& conversation in the lobby.'

Buffy and Giles had been coming out of the hotel restaurant when 
Kennedy confronted them. "What the fuck did you say to her!" she 
shouted.

"Kennedy, that's between&"

"Don't give me that shit! Do you know she's leaving? That she won't 
tell me where?"

Buffy gritted her teeth as she tried not to lose her temper. "She 
doesn't want me to know either Kennedy."

"And you're not even going to try to stop her?" the younger Slayer 
asked.

"No," She felt her control slipping inch by inch, "I'm trying to 
respect her wishes and so should you."

"Respect& from you?" Kennedy laughed bitterly, "That's rich coming 
from you. Don't you know that one word from you and she'd stay?"

Buffy's voice was low and dangerous as she responded, "You're not 
giving Will enough credit."

A crowd had started to gather around the two Slayers. Vi entered the 
lobby, took one look and bounded back upstairs to get Faith.

"You've had her wrapped around your little finger for years, and you 
don't even care that she's&" Thud! 

Buffy wasn't even aware of moving till she felt her fist connect with 
Kennedy's jaw, knocking her across the lobby. The younger Slayer 
struggled to shake the cobwebs off as an enraged Buffy advanced on 
her shouting, "You keep saying that I don't care, Kennedy! Well, what 
the FUCK would you know about it, Miss Slayer come lately!" She 
pulled her off the floor with one hand while drawing back to hit her 
again with the other.

Kennedy planted both feet in Buffy's midsection and used her body 
weight to throw the older Slayer off balance and flip her into a 
nearby wall. Both were back on their feet almost instantly, which is 
when Giles tried to get between them. He was never sure which one hit 
him and neither would admit to it later after he came to.

Then Faith, Vi and Rona tried to separate the two combatants. In a 
moment of unconscious teamwork Buffy threw Faith through a plate-
glass window into the street, while Kennedy introduced Vi and Rona to 
the term noggin knocker. They both spun and faced each other 
breathing hard.

"You could have said something to her years ago." Kennedy gasped.

"Yeah? What was I supposed to do? Take a page out of your book and 
throw myself at her like a bitch in heat?"

"You fucking&"

That was when a very upset Willow stepped off the elevator, "Before 
you finish that sentence Kennedy, you'd better think about just how 
PISSED OFF you want me to be."

TBC&



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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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