The Bitter End (Part One): (Warning: Coarse Language)

[Altoz]

In each generation, there has been one girl, of virtue, power and responsibility, gifted with extraordinary abilities, fighting against the encroaching darkness. In the late twentieth and early twenty first century, Buffy Anne Summers was one of those young women. This is the story of her last mission as the slayer, the Chosen One, and those who fought alongside her.
++
TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PROLOGUE:
After Wolfram and Hart had been banished from their world. Huntress Investigations and the Scoobies took their leave of one another:
"So you're staying here, Doyle?"
"Yeah. For the sake of Angel's memory and because Dru may need someone to fight alongside her if you fail to stop Amy Madison down in Sunnydale."
"And I'll stay too, for the simple reason that I need to work out what happened to Wesley and I want revenge for him. It'll be lonely without any of the guys, but..."
"But, I could definitely use someone with your scientific expertise, Fred. Thank you and welcome onboard."
"Lindsey?"
"I'm staying with Buffy. Sunnydale is my home now."
"Anya?"
"Even if Warren Meers was the one who shot and killed my Xander, I want revenge on Madison because she helped engineer it. I refuse to accept that the death of the man I loved could be dismissed as collateral damage. It isn't and it will never be. I will fight alongside the rest of you at the final battle. And...Doug, I loved your father too." Anya said, very different from the vengeance demon who had once had difficulties in her personal relationships and working out the world around her now.
"Faith?"
"Let's see...Angel's gone. So is Wesley. No offense, Dru, but there's no reason for me to stay in Los Angeles. And I need to redeem myself. So I'm joining the convoy to the 'Dale with the rest of you. If you'll have me."

BATH:
Although the attack on the Watchers Institute had backfired badly, Alessandra Norton had something she needed to know, about the outcome of the final battle in distant Sunnydale. She did readings for several of the Scoobies. She was surprised to see the Judgement Day card turn up in one of them- which symbolised transformation. What did that mean, for the person involved? She guessed who the King of Swords and the King of Pentacles probably were, and the same applied to the Queen of Pentacles and Princess of Pentacles. She breathed a sigh of relief- so most of them would survive what happened next. And then she came to the Lovers card and turned over the one in the last reading. It symbolised Death, and was quite unequivocal in its meaning.
Reluctantly, the new President of the Watchers Council dialed a certain phone number:
"Hello? Yes, I know. She's not there at the moment, is she? Look, I have some bad news. Two of you won't survive the next events as they start to unfold. And I'm sorry, but those two are you and the one you love. I'm so sorry. You deserve so much better. Will...she survive? To be honest, the reading is ambivalent about that. Changes are coming and I'm afraid that your death may be involved in it. Yes, I know you want to spare your lover this, but it's their decision to make. And yours. So, talk to them about it. But don't tell her."

She looked at the pictures before her and began to sob, gently. She hated doing this. She'd hated it when she couldn't warn Rupert that he wasn't coming back from Sunnydale over a year ago when he went back there with Doug. And now, this. With effort, she pulled herself together. With Quentin Travers and his satellites dead in the debris of the Council's London premises, she was now president and she needed to insure that her slayers were safe to the best of her ability, as well as her entourage. That meant sending out their surviving agents to insure the safety of the ones they loved.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART ONE:
As they filed into the room, Buffy's expression was solemn. She turned to Willow and Doug: "I think we all hoped it wouldn't come to this, but now it has. I'm asking you two first because you're my core. Wills?"
"I'm staying. Tara's time is nearly here, so she's going. At least if the worst happens, they'll be safer at the Watchers Institute. And you need at least one omega class wiccan to stop Amy from doing her worst."
"Doug?"
"I"m definitely stayin'. I've fought alongside you for over a year, and I'm not abandoning you now. Ever."
"In that case, I'm staying too. I won't let you go alone into this, loverman. Nor you, Buffy. And for old times, not you either Willow." Oz said, holding Doug's hand in his.
Dawn cleared her throat: "Jonathan and I talked about his last night. Yeah, I get that you want to keep me safe, given I'm your little sister. But Doug and Oz trained me well and the math says three slayers are better than two."
"Where she goes, I go. And because I love her and I can't imagine life without her."
Lindsay held his slayer in his arms: "And you don't need to ask me at all."
Buffy kissed him; "I know where your heart is, warrior prince man."
"Faith?"
"I'm in this for the long haul. I need to redeem myself."
"Anya?"
"It may not be the noblest of reasons, but I want her blood for what she did to Xander."
"Okay. Do we have all the civilians out of the way?"
"Kicking and screaming, in the case of Uncle Ken and Aunt Maureen. But we laid down the law and I said that I couldn't bear to lose anyone else after what Cain did to Jordy. So, they've evacuated to Westbury. Clem and Tara went with them."
"Our parents are going to be a tougher proposition." Willow said to Buffy.
"You can say that again, Buffy."
"Dad?! Oh thank goodness!"
"No, daughter, you don't understand. It's time for a clean slate. And when I say that, I mean it. Both you, my daughter, and the cuckoo in your nest."
Doug and Lindsay moved in front of her: "Uh uh, buddy. I don't know if you're really Buffy's dad, but you'll have to get through me first. Hey. Lindsay MacDonald. I'm your daughter's significant other and immortal, so fire away."
Doug swallowed: "Blazes."
"Doug, what's wrong? Daddy, don't do this."
Willow gazed across the room at Doug as she tried to read Hank Summers' mind- and then she knew at the same time.
"It's a husk, Buffy. It's not your father anymore. The First... the First killed him and took over his body in preparation for this. To throw you off."
Dawn closed her eyes and sobbed. Buffy stood firm:
"Because that's what you do, isn't it, First? You core and hollow out any individuality and turn your followers into meat puppets. Because you're ageless evil, old and you want to throw us off track before the final battle like you've done all year. Yes, I will grieve and cry for my father, later, but you aren't him, You are an empty shell wearing his form and I will stand back and let the others remove that threat."
"And I'm not going to plead for mercy because my sister's right. Dad abandoned us a long time ago and we grew away from him a long time ago. And I'm sorry we weren't there when you took him, but it was your choice to do so. Wherever you are now, Daddy, goodbye."
"Oh, very moving. Time to-" Oz wolfsided rapidly and leapt for the Hank simulacra as Doug's telekinesis jerked the impostor's hand upward and Lindsey's sword made contact with its gun, causing it to spiral out of contact. Anya grabbed it and without hesitation, fired twice at it. The figure jerked as if it were a marionette whose strings had been cut. In a very real sense, it was. As the impostor fell to the ground, it convulsed once as the First's essence left it. Buffy and Dawn turned: "Willow, Doug? We want to be alone."
"I don't think this is over yet. Look, my dysfunctional rat's nest of a family is dead. A therioanthrope of some sort took them out years ago, both Gavin and my faithless mother Sandy. I'm not sure about Lucy, my sister, the body was never found, but it's been years since it happened. Lindsey?"
"I was never close to my ma and dad. But...no, they don't deserve that. Willow?"
"I love my parents. If anything happened to them..."
"Then let's go. Time's a-wasting." With that, they dematerialised.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART TWO: GREENDALE, MASSACHUSETTS:

As the skies burgeoned in cloud and ice above them, Willow, Lindsey and Doug materialised on the cold crisp New England soil. And disturbingly, there was a distant female scream: "Mom!" Willow cried, as they ran toward the cottage near them. Flinging open the door, Willow stood, her mouth gaping, her eyes filling with tears. As the two men joined her, she screamed: "Dad! Dad, what have you done to her?"
"Willow, I'm not getting...I'm not detecting any of Ira's brainwaves from him. It's the same thing that happened in Sunnydale. And... there's something else..."
"It's all right, Doug. I know. That's a kabbalist symbol on his head. Qlippoth. The antithesis of the Tree of Life, the Tree of Death."
"True, witch. And you know the bargain that I'm going to strike with you now. That weakling alongside you and his accursed father decided to take matters into their own hands and neuter your dark power, your majesty and crush it beneath the Diana Tiphareth spell. In return for assuming the qlippoth, all this can be undone. Your father's curiousity and captivity here, your mother's death and your own bondage to the light."
Eyes brimming with tears, Willow stammered at first: "N-no. No, that's too high a bargain. The qlippoth is evil incarnate, a manifestation of the First. All you want me to do is to abandon my dignity, independence, the woman I love and child she's about to give birth to, my best friends and everything I've fought for. And the answer is no. Because my father knew the risk that inquiring into the shadow of our heritage would bring and he did it anyway."
"I did it for you, Willow."
"No. You do not get to speak with his voice. You do not get to puppet his body like a plate of meat. And you will never corrupt me again, or use me as a tool!" And as she used her keynote Tiphareth Sol Invictus spell, the room was surrounded in blinding white light as the husk that had once been Ira Rosenberg screamed and burst into flame and ash. Sobbing, Willow knelt in the ruins of her family life, cradling her mother's body. Doug walked out and slammed his fist into a tree:
"Damn it! Why is this happening?"
"We knew this was going to be tough, buddy."
"I was supposed to be there to protect them from this, Linz. What the hell good is all our power and street fighting skill against something that's one step ahead of us, constantly?"
At length, Willow walked out of the bungalow, her forehead daubed with a circle, talismans of her family's life in a vial.
"Oklahoma. Now."
"Doug, what is it?"
"I hope to Gaia we're not too late already."

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART THREE: OKLAHOMA:

As they alighted, Willow, Doug and Lindsey could see at least eight different twisters. And there, silhouetted on the horizon, was Lindsey's ramshackle childhood home. He raced toward it, as Doug and Willow invoked the deities of the winds to prevent any greater substantial loss of life;
Willow muttered: "Grandiose, much?"
Doug parried and unspun one of the tornados: "She's just demonstrating her power to us. Are you okay, Wills?"
"I don't think I'll ever be okay again, Doug. Was it like this when you lost Giles?"
"Yeah. And it hurts like hell still. I'd be lying if I said you get over it, because I never really have. I treasure the memory of our last few years together, but I wish he'd told me, or Alessandra, or someone. Damn it. That's all but three of them dissipated. And one of them's heading straight for Lindsey's folk's place."
"Why aren't they trying to get away?" Willow shouted, over the melee of the storm.
"At a guess, they're pissed out of their minds. Linz said they had drinking problems. Right. You keep up counteracting the weather spells Amy's throwin' at us and I teleport in there and grab them." But no sooner had Doug dematerialised, than he was back, his clothes smoking, nursing severe wounds across his arms and chest:
"Uhhh...damn it. She warded it."
"We'll see about that..." Willow concentrated on the house and the sigils surrounding it as Lindsey flung open the door. But it was too late. The last remaining tornado slammed into his parent's home and Lindsey MacDonald was torn away from the house he'd grown up in, amidst the dying screams of his parents. Then, there was silence as the winds died back down, their dreadful task done. Lindsey got up, staring at the debris and ruins of his early life as Willow came forward:
"I-I can't believe it, Willow. Doug. I... couldn't do anything. I...couldn't stop her taking their lives like they were...insects. They're gone. Just like that."
Willow bowed her head: "We knew it was going to be tough and this was going to break our hearts. But how much more of this can we all take? It just slaughtered all of our parents in cold blood. Who's going to be next? Oz? Tara? Buffy?"

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART FOUR: RAVELLO DRIVE:

Battered and demoralised, the three outliers regrouped at Buffy's Ravello Drive home, at which Faith and Jonathon had buried the husk of Hank Summers. Doug embraced Oz, then turned to Buffy: "There...were fatalities. Willow and Lindsey's parents died. Looks like Amy is playing a long plan."
"I'm so sorry, both of you. Well, this is what Lilah Morgan meant when she said the gloves were off now back in Los Angeles. At a guess, Wolfram and Hart weren't bluffing when they removed the wards that blocked her from using her full power- all that accumulated darkmagic from last year in Sunnydale."
"She's trying to corrupt us or intimidate us. She offered me a choice- join her and she'd relinquish control of my parents. I wasn't even remotely tempted. Thank Gaia for the Diana Tiphareth spell and its blockage of darkmagic."
"I can't even begin to imagine what that sacrifice must have cost you..."
"It's all right, Buffy. It was up to my dad to resist the temptation from the qlippoth and he didn't. He killed my mother. Hank wasn't there for you or Dawn, so I imagine you must have given him up as a lost cause. Lindsey...tried to save his parents, despite the dysfunctional state of his family."
"Tara called while you were out. She's safe in Westbury at the Institute and her waters have broken. It won't be long before you're a co-mother, Willow."
"At least Alessandra Norton's in charge there now and she's a no-nonsense lady. I got to tell her that there were no hard feelings about me serving out my sentence. And at least some of the potentials that she assembled are already good at combat."
"I just hope they'll be okay." Buffy said gravely.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART FIVE: WESTBURY:

Secure in the Watchers Institute's hospital bay, Tara looked out as the storm raged against the Southeastern England coast. She felt her belly and the increasing movement there. How odd to be bringing new life into this world, particularly at this time. She longed to be with Willow, especially after that searing telephone call when her partner had told her about the death of Ira and Sheila Rosenberg through his qlippoth seduction. But their love had kept Willow allied to the Tiphareth path, the one of enlightenment, justice, truth and mercy. They'd been warned about this, true- Amy Madison had no barriers now to her predatory re-emergence into their dimension, although she was taking time to incarnate fully here, which indicated that some form of resistance was still braking her descent in the higher realms. Abruptly, she felt dampness beneath her. No, it wouldn't be long now. One way or the other.

Elsewhere, on a hlll overlooking Bath, one of the Potentials had already fallen as battle was joined there:
"No. No, this can't be happening..." Lola Rennet cried as she cradled her fallen lover Sara Kennedy's body in her arms.
"Vi, take up her position. Lola, I'm truly sorry. Trust me, I know what it's like to lose someone close to you." Maureen Osborne said as she fed data into the drones buzzing above them, despite the furious surges of lightning and demonic onslaught. It was just as well their nephew and the man he loved couldn't witness what was happening now across the Atlantic. But he'd been a marine, she'd been a CIA operative and neither of them could just stand by while others fought for them instead.
Ken fired a fusillade of his own and there was an unearthly screech as his bullets found their mark:
"That's for Kennedy, you filth. Sweetheart? Are they retreating, or is it wishful thinking?"
"No. No, you're right. Samantha, Riley? Are things cooling on the beach as well?"
"Affirmative, Maureen. They're well in retreat now. Looks like Madison is withdrawing her branch effort here because she wants to reserve her strength for later."

Hands trembling, Alessandra Norton overturned the signifier Tarot card. It read Death. Oddly enough, it reassured her. Now all they had to do was wait. She prepared to deliver Tara and Willow's baby, hoping that they would all see the morning.

In the hills above Sunnydale, something parted the undergrowth with its paws and snarled as it caught sight of the person it hated most in this world. It reminded itself that Amy Madison had particularly promised that target for their own, but they awaited the final battle impatiently, longing for the feel of their target's neck against its teeth.

END OF PART ONE. TO BE CONCLUDED.