By Sprout Girl

Author's Note: Yes, I know Oz's uncle's name is Ken, not Keith. Brain Freeze on my part. This part of the story gets a bit sad, but please, hang in there, I promise it will get better. Thanks to everyone who sent feedback. I thrive on it. Keep sending it. Special thanks to Bumblebee for letting me hash out my ideas and for encouragement, SproutGirl

"Okay, everybody knows what they have to do?" Buffy looked with determination at the crew. And what a motley bunch they were. A May Queen, a jokester, a watcher, a sort-of witch, and a werewolf. "I don't want anyone panicking and forgeting their part."

"We got it, Buffy," Willow sighed. "We stay back and help the Kerinity thingies while you and Giles fight the mayor. We got it the first hundred times you told us."

"Well, you guys *do* have a tendency to go Wild Bunch on me. I worry."

"Don't worry, Buffster," Xander said, sliding his arm around her. "We'll watch your back. I mean," he amended as Cordy shot him a look, "we'll stay in the back."

"Okay," Oz said, taking Willow's hand. "Let's do it."

They filed out of the library towards the Quad. Buffy, Giles, and Xander carried the Box of Kerinity between them. As they sat down in the chairs for the graduates, Giles slid the box under Buffy's chair. She turned to him and smiled. "Two graduations all in one."

"How's that?" he asked.

"Well, high school, which has been the biggest pain of my life, will finally be over. And the hardest slayage I've faced yet will be over." She paused for a moment. "One way or another, it will all be over."

"Buffy…"

"Giles, I know." She hugged him tight. "But we'll get through this, and we can go back to being Watcher and Slayer. But I want you to know, just in case, well, I think of you kind of like, well he's never around, and a girl has to have some kind of father figure in her life, and you're…well, you're mine."

Giles didn't know what to say to that. Ever since he had been fired from the Watcher's Council he had realized that Buffy was more than his Slayer. She was his daughter. Not biologically, but that didn't matter. "Yes, well, erm, I too, that is…."

"Giles, its okay. Go take your seat in the stands." Buffy smiled at the departing figure. It never ceased to amaze her how flustered he got at a little bit of sentiment.

"Buffy, you okay?" Willow asked, seeing the tears in her friend's eyes.

"Yeah." She smiled. "You got your spellbook?"

"Under Oz's robe," she giggled.

"Oh, really? What else is under there?"

"Nothing!" Willow hit Buffy on the arm when the Slayer's eyebrow shot up at that one word answer. "Clothes!" she amended. "And under those, I'm not telling."

"Well, a wife does have to keep some things about her husband private. I just thought of something." She leaned closer to Willow and whispered, "Do you realize that none of our parents are here? And not because of the danger, other than my mom."

"I know. Sad, isn't it? Xander's parents couldn't be bothered, and Cordy's I think are at their condo in Jamaica. Oz's parents wanted to come, but they won an all expense paid trip to France for two months, and it was now or never. They asked him if he wanted them to stay, but he said he couldn't do that, since he should have graduated last year."

"And your parents?" Buffy asked. "I can't believe that your dad would miss this."

"He didn't have a choice. I asked him not to come. I told him I was nervous about my speech, and didn't want my family to hear it."

"And your mom?"

"Meeting. Something about graduation being a milestone that could shape a young girl's life. For her new article. Here come Snyder and Wilkins." The girls turned to face front, Buffy making sure her robe covered the Box of Kerinity.

Snyder knocked the microphone a few times, producing a loud screech. "Students, you are all here today to celebrate leaving this school. And we are here to celebrate with you," he said, looking right at Buffy's group. "Some of you passed with honors, some of you barely passed at all. And to congratulate you all on this passing, here tonight to speak is Mayor Richard Wilkins III."

Sporadic applause punctuated the air as the mayor stepped up to the podium. "Thank you for that enthusiastic greeting. Graduation. Commencement. A time of change in a young person's life. Tonight signals a change like one you've never before experienced. A change for the better. As you graduate tonight the whole town benefits, and as its mayor, I benefit enormously. So as thanks for all the hard work on the part of the Graduating Class of 1999, I present you with this gift." He motioned to two of his flunkies, who brought forward a very familiar looking box. "The contents of this box will help us all through the changes that are about to begin. But before I open it, let's have our Valedictorian make her speech, shall we? Will the intrepid Miss Rosenburg please come to the stage?"

Willow looked nervously at Buffy. They had not expected it to happen this way. They had counted on Wilkins' turning before anything else.

"Buffy," Oz leaned across his wife to talk to the Slayer. "I don't want her going up there with that monster."

"Neither do I Oz, but I don't think we have much of a choice. Willow, take your spellbook with you."

Willow reached across to Oz and retrieved her book, covering it with notes she had made on certain spells. "I don't even have a speech written, I'm gonna freeze when I get up there!"

Oz squeezed her hand. "You'll do fine."

"Miss Rosenburg?" the mayor called from the stage.

As she walked up the aisle to the podium, she kept her eyes on the mayor, wondering what he was up to. When she reached the front, he stepped aside to let her pass him. Perhaps he wasn't going to ascend tonight. Perhaps they had all been wrong about that. Then her eyes fell on the box, and she looked back up at him. And she knew. She knew that they were not wrong. It would be tonight. She knew what she had to do.

"Students, parents, faculty," she started, trying to make this sound like a normal graduation speech. "We thank you all for coming. Faculty, we thank you for making this school as painless as possible. Parents we thank you for your involvement in our lives." Willow had to give a sarcastic pause after this. < Involved, yeah, right. >

"Students, as we graduate we take with us the knowledge that we have acquired here in Sunnydale. Other people may not understand this knowledge, but I hope that you take it with you and never forget. One of the things we learned here is that normalcy is relative. This spring, you as a student body gave out an award to a very special person. We've all been at The Bronze at a time when she was needed, we've all seen what she can do. But she cannot do it alone. Tonight she needs your help." She nodded slightly at Buffy, in case anybody missed her subtle hints. She noticed a mass stiffening of bodies as the senior class understood what she was asking. "If you are not prepared to help in the way that is necessary, then please, assist the audience in leaving safely." Willow noticed the mayor walking towards her, his intent on stopping her speech plain on his face. When he was two steps away from her, he doubled over in pain, much the way Oz did at his time of the month. "We need your help and we need it NOW!!" she screamed as the mayor's helpers opened the box.

As she opened her spellbook, she saw some students stand up in battle stances, and some make their way to their families, shooing them away from the school. She saw Xander and Oz help Buffy lift the box onto the seats and undo the rusted latch. At that moment, she saw the animals swarming out of the mayor's box, some of them coming her way. Willow hastily started a binding spell, more out of reflex than anything else. The creatures went around her, streaming down the steps and into the seating area. She searched frantically for a spell that would help protect the class. As she hunted for the right page, she heard a roar of rage. She looked up to see a *thing* rushing towards her. The thing had once been the mayor, but now had the hands, head and feet of a bear, with a snake-like tail erupting from its back. Its vertebrae were horribly twisted, each one a giant knot on its back.

She jumped back, off the stage, landing wrenchingly on her back, and spun to her side. She scrambled to stand up and run to Oz. She could see that he was coming for her, but she knew that he wouldn't get there in time. All around her were creatures, hand sized bugs fighting, squealing, and chewing. She got to her feet, squishing a few Gravloks along the way, and started running, but a giant paw held her back. She closed her eyes, trying to avoid the teeth headed towards her heart, when she was suddenly let go.

She opened her eyes to see Oz thrown across the Quad, landing with a solid thud against the concrete wall under the stairs. As she ran to him, she heard Buffy throw out a challenge, but she couldn't hear what it was. She couldn't hear, see, or feel anything but Oz. She saw great claw marks across his chest, bleeding profusely, and another gash on his left leg. He looked up at her, pain in his eyes, words forming on his lips. She shushed him, putting her lips to his, trying to ease his pain.

Oz saw the tears running down her cheeks, and wanted so badly to wipe them away, the way he had in the past. But he couldn't move. "Willow," he choked out, "Buffy needs your help. Go."

"No. How can I? I can't leave you." She put her forehead to his in a familiar gesture.

"Willow, I'm not dying," Oz told her, even though he knew he was. He could feel it in every fiber of his being. Just then, they heard a frantic Giles call out for Willow. "Go, Baby. Go."

Willow looked up to see Giles flying towards them. "Willow. We need your spells. We need *you.* Come with me."

"No! Giles, I can't! You can't ask me to leave him like this. He's *dying*!!!" Willow choked back her sobs, never taking her eyes from her husband's.

Giles took a good look at Oz for the first time, shock registering on his face. He shook his head, and gently took Willow's hand. "He's not. I assure you, he's not. Please," he asked, desperate, "Please, we need your help."

Willow looked at Oz, obviously torn. He summoned up all his strength to scream at her, to make her realize how drastic the situation was. "GO!!" was all he managed.

It was enough. Willow turned and fled with Giles back into the melee. She looked back once, and he smiled at her. A weak smile that held so much warmth and love, but no hope. She ran forward again, not seeing him cough up blood, turning onto his side, and giving up.

---

Continues
e-mail the groovy author~Make your own fun