Karma
by Redwulf


Prologue

Buffy sat alone in her chair. the chair that confined her since a year after Sunnydale…thirty years ago. Alone in her room, the former Sunnydale Slayer looked back on her life, it had been filled with tragedy more so than most. At fifteen she had discovered that she was the slayer, The one girl Yada, yada, within in a .month she had been kicked out of school, within two her dad had deserted her and her mom. The bad thing was it

She was 53 years old and would never see another birthday, not if she got her wish. Her memories of the last thirty years were nothing except painful: thirty years without love. She realized now that she had truly been loved for only three years in her entire life. Three years of being loved. Three years spent torturing the one who loved her.

Talk about karma.

It had been surreal when he died the first time. But, being Buffy, she rushed out to find a new lover as quickly as possible. It hadn't even bothered her the guy had been one of Spike's enemies. Still trying to convince herself she didn't love him, she actually thought it funny that Spike was alive, and had come to visit while she was on a date with said enemy. She broke up with Marcus immediately after the incident, but swore to herself it wasn't about Spike.

She had planned to visit L.A. after Dawn got out of school for the summer, but not to see Spike, of course. When they arrived to see their father, Buffy found Angel, and was informed of Spike’s death.

Buffy cried for three days in her old room On the cot placed in the new personal home gym (formerly her bedroom), Buffy cried for three days, barely ate and spoke to no one.

After calling to find out what he had done to upset her, Angel came to Mr. Summers's place visiting at Willow's request. Buffy didn’t say much as Angel had talked to her, until he informed her in an oh-so-smug voice that since Spike had died, the powers had decided to reward him with a permanent soul.

Pissed off beyond words, Buffy Anne Summers finally admitted the truth to both herself and Angel. She loved Spike, only Spike, and the thought of Angel being rewarded for a true Champion's death was simply vulgar.

She went on to admit that Spike had taught her about real love, and how true love and a pure heart overcame everything her friends told her was wrong; that if it weren't for her stupid reliance on her friends to make life choices for her, he would be with her right now.

Oh, and then the Brood Monster said exactly the wrong thing: "But it's just Spike."

The following beating she gave him took two hours seventeen minutes smashing al of the exercise equipment in the process, and was exactly what he needed ever since he'd started seducing her when she was only a fifteen year-old girl. It had been enlightening and empowering; it left him with multiple breaks of all four of his limbs, and finally freed Buffy from his demonic influence.

Granted, her empowerment lasted only as long as it took for her to start packing to go back home that afternoon. It was then that the memory of who was dead hit her hard and the crying started all over again. Dawn and Willow tried to console her, but her heart was dead.

It was less than a week later when she attacked human (yes, human) muggers in an alley. At the time, she saw it as a physical release for her emotional pain. She could let out her emotional pain physically on the men she was fighting. All too late, Buffy noticed two of the muggers had guns and had started shooting. She didn't know how, but she had been shot seventeen times: five in her back, shattering her spine. Her Slayer healing had gotten the rest, but those five bullets left her in a wheelchair for the remainder of her life.

Buffy had accepted it as her price to pay. Sure, she was still a martyr, but her friends had once again blamed Spike. She simply smiled and waited for them to leave. Funny after her year as the Slayer how, once she could no longer fight for them, the world seemed to simply forget her. Well, except for her monthly checks from the Council.

In the end, it had been Dawn that stuck by her side. Dawn and Andrew (of all people) took her home and stayed with her, listened to her tantrums, and cried with her. She started out not liking Andrew, but by the time he married Dawn, she loved the guy like a brother.

Now Dawn and Andrew were gone as well, dead in a simple car crash. They were dead, their children were grown, leaving Buffy with no one. She looked down at the picture in her lap. It hadn't been taken by a camera, but was a gift of Willow's magic. It was of her, in her mom's home in Sunnydale, quietly perched in Spike's lap.She smiled as she took the .38 pistol out of her pocket, put the barrel in her mouth, and pulled the trigger.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Her niece found her like that the next day, the picture still in her lap. The young woman cried for hours before she could call the police.

At Buffy's funeral, they enlarged the same picture to place over her casket. Xander Harris, the last living Scoobie, saw red--in his eyes, William the Bloody had claimed his third Slayer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In London, a bleach blonde vampire went into mourning.

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