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Surprise Ending

Buffy opened the door and Giles, Wesley and Jenny came inside. They all waited with bated breath when Angel hesitantly began to tell them about the last few days.

He told them that Darla taught him to hunt, to kill. He was ashamed when he admitted to killing a vagrant near the docks, then later a man outside a liquor store. He didn't quite have Darla's thirst for blood, so a kill every few days was enough to satisfy him. Finally he admitted to killing Parker Abrams, Buffy's neighbor. He'd seen the guy outside her window the night he had been there.

Giles hesitantly asked about Cordelia and Faith, to which Angel only curiously replied "What about them?"

Wesley talked Angel out of turning himself in, suggesting that they all wait a few hours until their heads were clear and they could come up with a plan.

Buffy stayed with Angel that night, her presence a comfort to him as he struggled to figure out his life now. They talked for long hours that night. Angel told Buffy about the few years he spent in Sunnydale as a child, about the painful memories and insecurities he had carried with him for years. Buffy felt sincere remorse that she never realized that such childish cruelty had caused him so much pain. She convinced him that he was not responsible for the horrible crimes that the demon inside him had committed. By morning, Angel determined that Buffy not waste her life on him but Buffy was equally determined to stay. When he realized that she wasn't going to compromise, he capitulated and smiled for the first time.

Giles arrived later in the afternoon along with the news that Wesley Wyndam-Price had been the murderer of Cordelia and Faith, along with several other young women. Spike had made the announcement at a press conference just minutes earlier, shortly after Wesley turned himself in.

Giles admitted that Wesley had lived in Sunnydale years ago and had been suspected of multiple murders. No hard evidence had been found to incriminate him at the time, so he was never charged or prosecuted. Giles and several of the other white hats secretly believed that Wesley had gotten involved with some sort of ritual demon sacrifice and that the murders were the payment or offering that was required of him. And, as it made for good novels, Wesley had cashed in on the stories and had made a small fortune before turning his hand to editing.

When Giles and another white hat, Charles Gunn, confronted with their suspicions, he simply fled Sunnydale vowing never to return. However, when he did manage to make it back to Sunnydale, he found his old habits hard to break. Like an addict, he sought out Travzlaog and asked for favors. When both Faith and Cordelia had rebuffed Wes's earlier attempts to pick them up at the Bronze, he simply choose them as his sacrificial lambs in retaliation. Their connection to Buffy and Angel turned out to be purely convenience.

Epilogue

Angel moved to Sunnydale and published several more books, his vampire novels receiving critical success as 'horrifyingly real' and 'so authentic you could believe it could happen.' Undoubtedly his own exploits at helping to rid Sunnydale of the otherworldly scourge that existed there contributed to the success of his stories.

Willow and Oz moved to Maryland where Willow was going to attend Johns Hopkins University. Willow couldn't stay in Sunnydale now that she knew about the existence of vampires, and she never really felt safe there again knowing that her neighbor had murdered her friends.

Giles and Jenny continued to lead the efforts of the white hats to keep the vampire population in control and to keep the hellmouth closed. With a man on the 'inside' so to speak, now that they had Angel helping their cause, their job had become easier than ever.

Buffy moved in with Angel shortly after Willow and Oz left, having no roommate to share the rent. They married in a small private ceremony just after Buffy completed her degree in child psychology.

In a strange and miraculous twist of fate, Angel had banked sperm some years earlier when he had brief but unwarranted cancer scare. They were hoping for a child in the spring…

Return to: Chapter 1 or read the other possible endings:
My Ending | Traditional Ending | Cliché Ending

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