DISCLAIMER: The characters of Buffy and company belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, WB, 20^th Century FOX, and probably some more. 

Pulled Down by the Undertow

It's Chilled Us to the Bone

June 3, 1998

The girl huddled into the wall, as if the weak morning light could protect her from the monster menacing her, the monster that wore a lover’s face.

The vampire paused to savor the moment. He saw the defeat on her face, and rejoiced. Absently waving his sword, he gloated, "So that’s it, huhn. No friends, no weapons, no hope. Take all that away and what’s left?"

Buffy looked at the sword and knew that if she failed, she failed everyone. If she died here and now, the world would go to hell, literally. And from somewhere deep inside a voice that she had not heard since her birthday gave her the answer she needed.

As Angelus’s sword thrust towards her heart, Buffy caught the blade and voiced her answer, "me."

The battle continued, and this time, Buffy let nothing distract her. She had never fought harder, and this time she would not lose. She would win, for the world’s sake, for her friends, for her family, for herself, and for her Angel.

Back to the statue that was the gateway to hell the sword fight raged. And then Buffy slashed the vampire’s hand, forcing him to drop his sword, even as his blood flowed onto her blade. A kick to his face dropped him to the ground in pain. And then Buffy raised her sword for the killing stroke.

Which was the precise moment when Willow in her hospital bed completed her spell.

For a moment Angel’s eyes glowed orange, as he blindly reached out for anything as a wave of pain washed through him. And then he collapsed to the ground, crying softly in pain.

The Chosen One regarded the vampire with suspicion. She had no idea what was up, but was wary of a trap.

Eventually, Angel looked up to see her face. Unsure of where he was, or why, he asked, "Buffy?"

Buffy kept her sword raised, unsure of what Angel was doing.

"Where are we?" The vampire confessed as he looked around in confusion. "I don’t remember."

Slowly Buffy lowered her sword as the undreamable dream was realized, wary of hoping, she asked quietly, "Angel?"

Angel smelled the Slayer blood on the air and looked at his lover in concern. Finding the cut on her arm, he reached out to it, relieved when he discovered it was superficial, and already healing. As his hand came in contact with her skin he reached out to her, to his salvation, and pulled her to him. Knowing that she would protect him from the things that he could not quite remember.

In too much shock to stop him, Buffy allowed him to pull her into his embrace. And at the long lost feeling of his arms around her, protecting her, the truth finally hit her.

Buffy let out a sigh, and with the exhalation, let out all the pain and grief that she had been feeling for five months. And then the Vampire Slayer stiffened in her lover’s embrace, as she saw the portal begin to open in the mouth of the statue.

Angel felt her reaction, and asked, "What’s happening?"

Buffy weakly smiled and laid a finger on his lips, "Don’t worry about it." And then she replaced her finger with her lips. Giving in to the passion that always existed between them, creating one final memory for herself.

The portal continued to grow in size and Buffy realized she could not delay any longer. The sacrifice needed to be made. She broke the kiss and said what needed to be said, "I love you."

Angel answered her declaration with his own, "I love you."

"Promise me, promise that you will keep fighting. I need to know that you will take my place if anything happens. I need to know that someone I love will take care of my destiny."

At first Angel was surprised at her request, and then taking in the seriousness of her features, he answered the only way he could. He would give her anything she asked for. "I promise."

At that Buffy smiled, and then shoved her lover away from the statue. The sword still had Angel’s blood on it, and she stabbed the sword into the demon, into the vortex. Blue energy radiated around her as the vortex accepted her sacrifice.

Angel turned too late to stop what had begun. He rushed towards her, but the blue lightning repelled him. And he watched in horror as the vortex swallowed the Chosen One, and then vanished.

Angel knelt on the ground before the statue of Acathla, weeping in pain. Alone.

He had regained his memories; he knew what he had done. And he did not think he could bear the pain. He knew what Buffy had done. He knew that she had taken his destiny. He was supposed to have sacrificed himself to save the world from Acathla. But she had traded destinies. In order to make her sacrifice worthwhile, he had to do the job of a Slayer. But it hurt.

The vampire knew that the sun was up, and he wanted nothing more than to embrace the light, and let his soul join his lover in hell.

But he had promised. He had broken so many promises to her; he would not break another.

He had today. He would mourn her for this day. When night came he would keep his promise. He would start killing until there were no more demons in the world. And when the last battle was over, when the last demon was destroyed, he would finally join her.

June 3, 1998

Oz and Cordelia stared at the girl in shock. Whatever had happened was over, but neither knew what it was.

Oz looked at his girlfriend carefully, "Willow?"

Willow looked around, she was not quite sure what was going on, she vaguely recalled attempting the curse, and then she remembered feeling something. She just was not quite sure what it was.

Dazedly the young witch looked at her audience, and asked, "Did it work?"

Oz gave her a strange look. "Well, we were, sorta, hoping you could tell us."

Willow looked down at the supplies set up on her hospital bed. Her eyes widened as she saw what was missing, "The Orb!"

Cordelia shrugged, "It did this weird glow thing."

Willow frowned in concentration, "I felt something, something go through me."

"Does that mean it worked?" Oz asked.

Willow bit her lip, "Well, we’ll find out soon enough."

Xander helped Giles into the hospital’s emergency room. Despite the early hour, the Watcher’s battered appearance brought a flurry of action.

Xander was left outside the room as the doctors found and treated rooms. Until they were sure of his condition, he could have no visitors.

So Xander headed to his best friend’s room.

Willow was alone and deeply asleep.

But a hint of herbs still lingered in the room. Xander guessed that she had preformed the curse, and she had survived. Obviously she had survived quite well, because Oz had left her alone.

Which probably meant that Oz and Cordelia were cleaning up from the ritual.

Xander slowly sank into the chair beside her bedside. Carefully he picked up her hand and held it to his lips, his head bowed in weariness. Just six hours before he had been holding her hand like this. He wondered if things were better or worse now.

His voice was full of pain as he asked his unconscious friend, "Oh Will, did I do the right thing?"

Willow was still asleep when Giles appeared at her doorway. Oz had taken over Xander’s place at her side. But Xander still stayed in the room, waiting. Waiting for anything to happen, he supposed.

Giles cleared his throat awkwardly, his injuries pained him, but they had not prevented him from refusing to stay in bed, "Any news?"

Xander shook his head. Still no word from Buffy.

"We should, well, see what happened."

"You mean go back to the Mansion?"

"Yes."

Oz looked up at them and then back down at the sleeping girl. He seemed hesitant. Giles immediately caught it. "Xander?"

Oz realized what the Watcher was doing, and was grateful. He looked back at his girlfriend in relief.

For a moment, something stirred in Xander, and then he turned to Giles. "Let’s do it."

Giles and Xander walked through an empty Mansion. They could not find a single sign of life, or unlife. No vampires. No Slayers.

Both ended up standing in front of the demon Acathla.

Neither could think of what had happened. But something had.

The demon was still asleep.

But a sword lay near the demon, leaving two swords in the room.

A battle had been fought, less then three hours before. But there was no sign of who had won.

No sign except that the demon was still asleep.

A single question burned in both their minds, Where was Buffy?

A few hours after dawn, Joyce slowly awoke from her nightmare filled dreams of the night before.

Her daughter’s revelation had led to a confused mess of dreams and memories, and she was unsure of what was real and what was dream.

And then she remembered her words, her ultimatum. But surely Buffy hadn’t believed her?

Joyce climbed the stairs to Buffy’s room.

But there was no sign of her daughter.

The room was as pristine as it had been the night before. Her daughter had not come home.

Not even for a change of clothes.

So where was she?

The next morning, Giles was waiting for the Slayerettes to gather. He had spent the previous day alternating between resting and being worried out of his mind. But there still was no word from Buffy.

The group approached together, Oz pushing Willow’s wheelchair.

Giles looked at the young girl in concern. She had severe injuries, and had preformed a spell of great difficulty. A spell which she still could not remember the details of. Giles had not pressed her for the details, but something had happened. He wish he knew if it was a good thing, or a bad thing.

He smiled at her, "Willow, are you sure you should be out of bed."

"Look whose talking."

Giles smiled at the truth of her claims. "Yes."

Cordelia brought an end to the small talk, "Any word?"

Xander looked at Giles and asked, "You haven’t seen her either?"

Willow shook her head, "No." She had been so sure that Buffy would come to her. She had been the one to perform the curse, and one of the few to defend Angel…

Oz joined the conversation, "But we know the world didn’t end, ‘cause check it out."

Giles sighed, "Well, we, uh… we went back to the Mansion. I-it was empty, um… and Acathla was, was… dormant."

Willow said with confidence, "I think the spell worked. I felt something go through me."

Cordelia was still impressed by the spell, "Plus the Orb did that cool glow thing."

Xander, who had some clue what might have happened, tried desperately to come up with another answer, "Well, maybe it wasn’t in time. Maybe she had to kill him before the cure could work."

Oz nodded in agreement, "Well, then, she’d wanna be alone, I guess."

Willow was not about to let anyone talk her out of her happy ending, "Or maybe Angel was saved, and they want to be alone together."

Giles looked thoughtful, he could not believe that she would be that selfish, "Perhaps…"

The whole group turned and slowly walked into school.

Below the school, a vampire slowly walked into the ruined church that had been the Master’s lair. It was empty now; the vampires had avoided it for the last year.

But Angel, like the other vampires, knew where the Mouth of Hell was.

Angel reached out to touch it, but he felt nothing. It was closed. Only the faint hint of power proved its existence.

In that moment he wished he could rip it open, and drag her out.

He was a demon; he understood what Hell was. And he would not wish it on anyone, especially not her.

Although she had been alive when she crossed over, she would be dead soon.

All too soon…

He wondered if he would feel it. He had felt it the first time.

He wondered if he would survive it…

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