Title: The End
Author: Paradox761
Email: Paradox761@mail.com

Website: members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
Disclaimer: Joss and co. own all things Buffy, no copyright infringement is intended. So please don’t sue, I don’t have any money anyway.
Summary: Post “Wrecked”, alt ending for season 6, and the series. B/W/X-friendship, Slight B/X and Ay/X.
Spoilers: “Wrecked”, and most of season 6.
Author’s note: For the purposes of characterization, in this story Spike did not attempt to rape Buffy. I am NOT a Spike fan, and this is NOT a fix-it fic. But I started this story before that happened, and I find it hard to write Spike as a sympathetic character after that scene. So to continue with the story as planned, that scene didn’t happen. Also, this story takes place before the Angel episode “Sleep Tight”. Also, I started this story after “Wrecked”, as I was starting to become unhappy with the way season six was turning out. I must say though, I couldn’t be happier with the way it ended. I could never top “Grave”, nor would I try. So I’ve gone in a different direction with this. But I did paraphrase some lines from Xander’s speech.
Dedication: To Jordan and Jessica, my angels. May they rest in peace.
Special thanks to: Wayne, Rob Clark, Ghostrider, Ozmandayus, Maggie C., Furious George, Bill, Calen, Chorlton, John, Wicked Raygun, DaBear, Cobra, Jeconais, Nathan Postmark, David, Drake Roberts, Angelus, Queen Boadicea, Scott, Malaskor, and The Crowe for the feedback and the encouragement with this story. I really appreciate it.

(10/12)

Angel and Spike made their way stealthily through the second floor of the mansion, checking all the rooms for enemies.  Spike tried to ignore the dirty looks Angel kept shooting him.  He knew that both Xander and Buffy had decided not to tell Angel about her and Spike’s little dalliance.  They wanted him to keep his mind on the situation at hand, and not killing the blonde vampire.  And seeing the anger that his mere presence seemed to stir in his grandsire, Spike couldn’t help but agree.  Part of him wanted to tell him though, just to see the look on his face.  To gloat, to rub in the fact that she wasn’t his anymore.  But then again she wasn’t Spike’s anymore either.  She never really had been, not in her heart anyway.  Angel shot him another dirty look, and Spike had finally had enough.  He grabbed him by the shoulders and manhandled him into one of the empty rooms they had just checked.

“All right Peaches, out with it!”

“What the hell are you doing, Spike?”

“You’ve been giving me the evil eye ever since you got here.  So let’s settle this.”

“There isn’t enough time in the world to settle all the problems I have with you, Spike,” Angel spat.

“So give me the abridged version then.”

“Fine!  You want it, here it is!  I don’t know what you did to get Buffy to trust you, but I don’t.  She doesn’t know you as well as I do.”  Spike bit back the urge to tell Angel just how well Buffy knew him and let him continue.  “You’re evil, conniving, and you’d do anything to get what you want.  You don’t care about what happens to any of these people, all you care about is yourself.  I want you to know that I’m keeping my eye on you.  I won’t let you hurt her.”

Spike had dragged Angel into that room, fully intent on letting him have it.  But when Angel stopped talking, he didn’t do anything.  He just stood there for a moment, staring at the other vampire.  “That’s it?” he asked, incredulously.  Angel looked puzzled by that.  After years of hanging with the Scoobies, Spike had heard all that, and ten times worse.  “No shit, you don’t trust me!  Nobody trusts me, I’m a bloody vampire for Christ’s sake!  You think any of them trust me for one second?  You think they ask for my help because they like me?  I’m hired muscle, no one’s inviting me to Christmas dinner!  They just don’t waste time shooting me dirty looks ‘cause their too busy saving the bloody world!”  He paused.  Angel didn’t say anything.  “You feel better now, you got that off your chest?”  Spike didn’t wait for an answer.  “Good, we got work to do.”  And with that, he brushed past him and headed into the hall, leaving Angel stunned and silent.

Angel quickly followed him out into the hall where they both found themselves standing in front of a very large, very mean looking demon.  It was at least eight feet tall, with red scaly skin, and two large horns coming out from the sides of its head.

“I AM THE ARCH-DEMON MEMNOCH!  DEVOURER OF SOULS!  DESTROYER OF WORLDS!  OVERSEER OF THE FIFTH LEVEL OF HELL!  ALL LESSER BEING TREMBLE BEFORE ME, OR FACE MY WRATH!”

The arch-demon’s voice was so deep and loud that the whole house seemed to shake.  It was unclear how he expected the two vampires to react to him, but whatever it was, it didn’t happen.  Angel and Spike just looked at each other, a puzzled expression on Angel’s face and an amused one on Spike’s.  And then Spike burst out laughing.  Not a chuckle or a titter, a full-blown guffaw.  After a few moments he had to lean on the wall to steady himself.  He was laughing so hard that he wasn’t even making noise anymore, his eyes were clenched shut and his whole body was shaking with laughter.

Angel just looked back and forth between the demon and Spike.  Now the demon looked puzzled.  When he spoke next, he actually stammered.

“I…I DEMAND THAT YOU STOP LAUGHING, OR I WILL DESTROY YOU!”

Spike’s laughter started to taper off until finally he stopped and composed himself.  He stood up straight again and opened his eyes, looking straight at the demon.  He opened his mouth, and burst out laughing again, even harder than before.  He reached out for the wall again, but he was further away from it than he thought, and he fell to the floor, still laughing.  Angel smiled at that.  Spike climbed to his feet and tried to speak.

“You…you bloody wanker.  Can you really be that stupid?” he asked, his laughter finally starting to settle down.  “We’re vampires you git!  We can smell that you’re human.”

“Unless arch-demons have started using Zest,” Angel added.  Spike chuckled at that and Angel smiled again.

“Or building plastic models,” Spike added.

“Plastic models?” Angel asked.

“The glue.”

Angel snapped his fingers.  “That’s what that is, I couldn’t place it.”

“Secondly, there is no arch-demon called Memnoch.  Where did you get that name anyway?”

“FROM…FROM AN ANNE RICE BOOK.”

This time both vampires started laughing.

The demon rolled his eyes in irritation.  Then he whispered a few words under his breath and the glamour faded away, leaving only the form of Jonathan Levinson behind.  He waited for the vampires to stop laughing and pay attention to him, and when they didn’t right away his irritation turned to anger.  “Stop laughing at me!” he yelled.  He reached into the bag on his hip pulling out a small talisman, and started chanting something.

Spike dove at the young warlock, knocking the talisman from his hand and clamping his hand around his mouth to keep him from casting any spells.  But his momentum sent them both sprawling to the floor, with Spike landing on top of Jonathan.  Jonathan grunted in pain, and having caused pain to a human, Spike’s chip reacted.

“Bloody hell!” he cried out, clutching the sides of his head as the pain ripped through his skull.

Jonathan used the distraction to wiggle out of the vampire’s grasp, but he didn’t get far before Angel grabbed him.  “Whoa there little guy.”

“I’m not short!”

Angel covered Jonathan’s mouth with his hand.  “Whatever you say kid.”  Angel turned to Spike who was still on the floor.  “We have to knock him out.”

“What are you looking at me for, I can’t do it.”

“There’s a bottle of chloroform and a rag in my coat pocket.”  Jonathan’s eyes grew wide at the mention of chloroform and he started struggling harder, but Angel held on tight.  “And I don’t exactly have a free hand at the moment.”

Spike picked himself up off the floor and walked over to Angel.  Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out the bottle and the rag.  “You sure do know how to take the fun out of everything, don’t you Peaches.  What exactly are you carrying this stuff around for?”

“For knocking people out,” Angel answered matter-of-factly.

Spike rolled his eyes.  “Well, ask a stupid question…” he drifted off.  He opened the bottle and poured some onto the rag, turning his attention to Jonathan.  “I have to thank you, mate.  I needed a good laugh.  Sweet dreams.”  And with that, he held the rag to Jonathan’s nose, and the young man lost consciousness.

Angel carried the dead weight into one of the adjacent rooms and closed the door.  Walking back over to Spike, he took the bottle back and started screwing the cap back on.  Angel still didn’t like the blonde vampire, and he still didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him.  But he felt some of the open hostility he held toward his grandchilde start to slip away.  Maybe it was being on the same side of things again after so many years, or maybe it was just the revelation that he wasn’t expected to start trusting him again.  And just maybe, somewhere deep inside of him, in a part of him that Angel didn’t care to admit even existed anymore, he was starting to feel a nostalgic camaraderie with the man.

The pair started down the hall again.  “That was pretty funny,” Angel admitted.

Spike chuckled.  “Yeah, it was.”

*

Xander took the head off the last Fungus demon with a swipe of his light saber, and stopped to catch his breath.  He and Gunn had made quick work of the demon horde thanks to their borrowed weapons.  The room was now filled with dismembered demon corpses in varying states of decay, the stench of which would linger for a long time to come.  Xander looked over at his fighting companion just as he drove his red energy blade into the midsection of the last Polgara demon.  He then brought the blade up, exiting the demon’s neck.  Another strike and the creatures head was gone.  He stopped to catch his breath too, catching Xander’s eye.

“These things are great,” he said, indicating the light saber in his hand.  “It’s like cutting through butter.”

“Keep it,” Xander said, deactivating his own and hooking to his belt.  “When this is all over we’ll go through all the geeks’ toys and divvy up the goodies.”

Gunn smiled.  “Thanks, man,” he said, turning his off as well.  Xander nodded.  “You got some good moves, how’d you learn to fight like that?”

“Living on the Hellmouth, you either learn to fight, or you die.”

Gunn nodded.  “I know what that’s like.”

Xander had his back to the staircase when he heard the sound of clapping.  Xander didn’t turn, but he put one hand on his light saber, and the other on the amulet that hung from around his neck.  He had a feeling he knew who was standing behind him, even before he spoke.

“I must say, I’m impressed,” Rak said.

Xander took the amulet off the chain and handed it to Gunn, knowing that he was blocking Rak’s view of the exchange.  “Keep this in your hand,” he whispered.

Gunn fought the instinct to nod, knowing that for whatever reason, Xander didn’t want Rak to see what he was doing.  He held the amulet tightly in his hand and when Xander turned, he casually let his hand fall behind his back.

“Rak,” Xander said as he turned.  “Fancy meeting you here.”  He pulled his light saber from his belt, but didn’t activate it.  His eyes were daring Rak to do something about it.

Rak was standing on the second floor just before the stairs, behind a railing that separated the second floor hallway with the mansions main foyer, which extended higher than the other rooms.  He looked from Xander, to the unconscious form of Andrew lying on the steps, then back to Xander again.  “He didn’t think you’d make it past the demons, even with the light saber.  Of course, he didn’t know that you would find another one, or that you would have quite so many friends.  Or that you’d be able to get the vampire inside.”

“And what did you think?” Xander asked.

“You are a resourceful bunch,” Rak admitted.  “But resource can only get you so far.”

Xander moved slowly but unafraid towards the stairs.  Gunn stayed where he was, his light saber still in his hand.  “And let me guess, you’re the one that’s going to stop us.”

Rak just smiled.  “You just don’t get it, do you?  You think she needs any help at all to destroy you?  Do you honestly think that a few more bodies will make a difference?  Or maybe you think that you’ll be able to talk her out of it in the end, and things will be all puppies and rainbows again.  It’s not going happen.”

“So what exactly are you doing here?” Xander asked, edging even closer to the stairs.

“I’m just the picador,” Rak answered with a smile.  “Throwing spears into the bulls.  She’s the matador.  She’s the destroyer.”  Rak lifted his fist, glowing with magic, and pointed it at Xander.  “I just get to soften you up.”

Xander held his ground.  He didn’t even flinch.  And at the last second, just before Rak let go with a blast, he moved his arm and pointed it straight at Gunn.  Gunn tried to dive out of the way but the blast struck him.  And as Gunn lay curled in a ball on the floor, it took him a few seconds before he realized that nothing was happening.  There was absolutely no pain at all.

The second Rak shifted his attention to Gunn, Xander started up the stairs in a full run, taking them three at a time.  In a matter of seconds, he was on the second floor and tackling Rak to the ground.  Rak’s blast was cut off as he tumbled to the ground with Xander on top of him.  Xander got in a couple punches to his face as he straddled him, making sure that his knees were pinning the warlock’s hands to the ground.  Rak just laughed.  Xander hit him again, hard, splitting his lip.

“Your friend is dead,” he said, still laughing, his teeth covered in blood.  “As you all soon will be.” 

“I hate to disappoint you Rak, but the only person who’s going to die tonight is you,” Xander said, holding his light saber with the business end against his chest.  Rak looked scared and confused.  “You all right down there, Gunn?” Xander called out.

“I’m fine,” Gunn called back.

Rak looked even more confused now.  “First you, then the vampire, and now him.  What the hell is going on here?”

“Well, you are getting older.  You can’t expect to pack the same punch that you used to.  It’s okay, it happens to a lot of guys.”  Gunn came jogging up the steps, chuckling at Xander’s joke.

“It ever happen to you?” he asked Xander as he walked up to them.

“Hell no,” Xander answered.

“Me neither.”

“You impudent little…” Rak’s insult was cut off by another punch to the face.

“Boy, you must really like getting hit,” Xander spat.  He turned to Gunn and held out his hand.  Gunn handed him the amulet back and he hooked it to the chain again.  Rak got a quick look before he tucked it under his shirt.

“A protection amulet,” Rak breathed.

“Is that what that thing is,” Gunn said.  “Well, that explains it.”

“Sorry I couldn’t give you a heads up,” Xander said.

“You mean you knew that he was going to do that!” Gunn asked incredulously.

Xander nodded.  “He knew that I was immune to his power the other night, and from my bold attitude he assumed that I still was.  He probably figured that I was trying to draw him away from you.  And that once you were hit, I would run to you, to protect you, and he would have time to get away.”

“That’s quite a bluff,” Gunn said.  “If you were wrong you would have been killed.”

Xander turned back to Rak, staring daggers at the man.  “But I wasn’t wrong.”

“So what do we do now, knock him out?”

Xander readjusted his grip on his light saber, still held against Rak’s chest, his thumb hovering over the button.  “Not exactly.”

“Now wait a minute, you can’t kill me, I’m human!” Rak insisted.

Xander punched him again.  His left eye was starting to turn purple and swell up.  “You lost any right you had to call yourself human when you sold your soul for dark magiks,” he hissed.  “And you lost any chance you had at gaining my sympathy when you hurt my Willow.”  His teeth were clenched, and his eyes were blazing with hatred.  For the first time ever in his life, Rak was afraid.

“She…she came to me!”

“And you used her, and abused her!  You feed into her addiction, made her a slave to it!  If it hadn’t been for you, we could have helped her.”  Xander paused, his body shaking with disgust and revulsion.  “You did this to her!” he shouted.

Gunn looked awestruck at the scene before him.  The man he had meant only a short time ago, who had been so cool and collected under pressure, was loosing his mind.  Cordelia had told him about Xander and Willow, about the bond they shared.  Gunn thought that he understood, he had had best friends before.  But Cordelia told him that it was different.  That it wasn’t something that could be understood unless you could see it.  He could see now what she meant, in the eyes of this young man who was operating on pure rage.  Part of him told him to put a stop to this, that it wasn’t right.  That as repulsive as Rak was, he was still human.  But he just couldn’t bring himself to feel pity for this man.  When he thought about it happening in his head, pulling Xander off of him, the Xander in his mind asked him why.  And Gunn couldn’t think of a reason.

“No, please…” Rak was pleading now.

“You want me to show you mercy?  Compassion?  Where was your mercy?  Where was your compassion!  Huh!  Where!”  He was screaming now.  “You took my Willow from me!  You took her!”  He hit him again, and again, and again, in a fury of rage induced punches.  Until Rak’s face looked like a pile of hamburger.  “You want mercy?” Xander asked him now, the tears streaming down his face.  “You ask God.”  His grip tightened around the handle of the light saber.  “Tell him I sent you.”

Gunn couldn’t help but turn his head when he heard the sound of the light saber ripping into Rak’s body.  The sound wasn’t too dissimilar from the sound it made when you thrust it into a demon’s body.  It sizzled as it broke through the skin.  And it gurgled as it passed through the organs, the liquid in the body boiling from the heat.  The only difference was the scream.

Xander held Rak’s eyes with his own as tightly has he held the light saber plunged into his chest.  He wanted to make sure that the last think Rak saw before he left this earth was his face, the hatred boiling in his eyes.

When it was over, he collapsed in a fit of tears.  Tears for his lost friend, and tears for his lost innocence.  He had taken a life now, and no matter what happened next, he would never be the same.  He didn’t regret that he did it, only that he had to do it.  He had forgotten completely about Gunn, until the other man touched his shoulder.

“Are you going to be okay?”

Xander stood and wiped the tears from his eyes.  He composed himself rather quickly considering, and nodded his head.  Then he looked at Gunn, trying to find a way to phrase what he had to say next.  “If you’re not behind this, I’ll understand.  If you want to tell the others…” he drifted off as Gunn started shaking his head.

“Men like him, they’re the worst kind of evil,” he said.  “Because they chose it.  Up here is just like down there,” he said, nodding his head toward the foyer.  “I got your back.  As far as what you want to tell the others, that’s up to you.”

Xander nodded and held out his hand.  Gunn shook it.  “Thank you.”

Gunn just nodded.  “Come on, we better get a move on before all that screaming attracts some unwanted attention.”

Xander nodded.  He knew Gunn was right.  He picked up his fallen light saber and hooked it to his belt again.  Taking one last look at Rak’s body, he turned and followed Gunn down the hall.

What neither of them knew was that there was only one person left to attract attention from.  And she had seen the whole thing.