"Immortal Beloved..." CXXIII...

PG-13

Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Though the standard IB format, one of (123) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)

Archived (soon) at the 'Normal' Buffyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse at -https://www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/index.html, scroll down to "Immortal Beloved" series ...

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"Buffy..." a sigh...Staring at the young woman seated at table, holding...Clutching the box stolen from the secret vaults...

"Why did you do this?..."

"Is it true?..." she asked....

Giles shook his head...But not in negation, she realized...

"Giles, is what Henri told me true?..." she said, slowly but grimly...

"Was William..." she paused... "Is he...?"

"Buffy, whatever the Immortal told you...Or that you have found here in the archives...William the Bloody is destroyed...And William Walthrop is long dead..."

"Then it's true, isn't it?...He was my husband...And you..."

"I did what I had to do to protect you...Spike couldn't be..."

"Liar..." she said softly... "Liar...You knew he had his soul back...That's why you tried to kill him before...You never tried to kill William the Bloody...But William Soames Walthrop...He had to die, right?...Otherwise, I might have...You bastard..."

"Buffy, we had a duty...Both of us...Humanity had to be..."

"My name is Cicely...Cicely Walthrop...And you knew it, didn't you, you liar?...You murderer..." she stood in front of him...Face grim, set, and cold...

"I didn't kill him, Buffy..."

"You told Andrew not to tell me...You wanted him dead..."

"He was a demon, Buffy...Soul or..."

She was ready to, he realized...Tensing for the blow...But suddenly she relaxed a bit and slowly sat down, lightly touching the dusty ole book of poetry and the packet of stolen century-plus old letters carefully wrapped in the box on the table...Looking up at him...

"I can understand Angel...You hated him...But for the love of God, Giles...My husband...With soul restored?..." she stared at him... "You knew...All the time, you knew..."

"Not always...But yes, the last few years...I'd known the general outline of the story of Cicely and William...All field Watchers have been briefed for the last century against..."

"My coming..." she said, flatly... "Our protectors...Keepin' a close watch in case I came back..."

"Chairman Travers warned me when William appeared in Sunnydale that it might not be coincidence...That you might well be...Buffy...I didn't want it to end like this...But there was no other..."

"You could have told me...I could have saved him..."

"Buffy, the menace to Humanity outweighed every other consideration...I am sorry...But that was another life...Buffy, you are not that woman now and..."

"You killed my husband, you bastards..." she said quietly... "All because I wanted a life...You would've killed anyone I'd hooked up with, right?...Hell, you killed me and my daughter in 1880 and you would've killed Buffy Summers just as easily if she became a problem...I mean a real problem, quitting Slaying or going off to save her vampire husband..."

Right?...She stared at him...

"We all have our duty, Slayer..." he said quietly... "We had a chance here to eliminate the demonic threat to Mankind forever...And whatever sacrifices had to be made, were made...:"

Will be made...

"Angel and Will eliminated the threat..." she shook her head... "You sat on your ass and let them die...And now what?...The Partners are back in Hell, their demons have fled this planet and their vamp hosts...You boys have 20,000 Slayers under your thumb, thanks to Willow and me...And no more vamps or demons to hunt, thanks to my husband and poor Angel...So now what?...The Council starts throwing its weight around?..."

Tell me...She eyed him... "Give me a good excuse to kill you all, for ole times sake..."

"The demonic threat is almost eliminated, Buffy..." he nodded... "But, excepting the occasional Simon Farris or Gwendolyn Post, we have no interest in seizing power...The Council could have sought power centuries ago...All we want is Humanity safe...And free..."

Of all things demonic...

She turned at the sound behind her...

...Of machine gun bolts being pulled back...

"Giles..." she turned to him...

"The others are all gone, dear, including poor Willow...They've done their duty and been retired as painlessly as possible...And with all the hell portals sealed there will be no more vampires and no more Slayers, no more demonic or demonic-powered forces unleashed on Earth..."

Even by us...He nodded to the armed men facing the now-standing Buffy...

She, in her turn, not really surprised to see that he made no move to avoid the fired bullets...

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