27. The End of the World as we Know It

(Some dialogue taken from episode transcripts)


Nothing had improved with morning. The factory was destroyed, and the vampires had to re-group at the mansion. Angelus was still beside himself with rage when Dru began her insane ranting again. Most of their minions, and the factory, had been burned to dust, or else run off. The sight of an enraged Slayer was too much for them to take. They had liked it when they thought that they had the upper hand. That Angelus could get the Slayer to do anything he wanted, accept anything he said. Now that his seemingly omnipotent power had ended, they had deserted him.

The Slayer had turned on him. She had threatened him! Attempted to kill him! Prudence told him that he should cut his losses and leave Sunnydale as well, before the Slayer came to his house hunting him. She surely knew where to find him. The only question was how long it would take her to come up with a plan. They both knew that their odds in any fair fight were only fifty/fifty. Not nearly good enough to bet one’s life on. Each of them would have to seek a way to stack the odds in their favor. But then Angelus had never been known for caution.

He still thought that the concept idea had been brilliant. For a few short months, Buffy had been HIS. That last night, he believed that he had finally convinced her to accept the world as he wanted it. It had been the best night of his life. If only that stupid Gypsy woman hadn’t been so close to restoring his soul and spoiling everything for him. Now it was all lost.

His remorse turned to anger as Dru’s ranting intruded into his brooding, “A tomb, with a surprise inside.” She was almost dancing, visions running inside her brain.

“You can see all that inside your head?” Angelus asked, impressed. Maybe his fickle childe wasn’t so worthless after all. Maybe she could see a way that he could still turn everything around and into his favor. Maybe there was a way that he could regain what he had lost. He’d do anything, if he could get her back.

“No, you ninny. She read it in the morning paper.”

Spike was more than annoyed. His Sire’s plans had turned to dust with the murder of the school teacher. The fact that it had inconvenienced him as well affect Angelus not at all. Why Angelus hadn’t been able to leave well enough alone he’d never understand.

Glancing at the headline, the fog that had descended around Angelus’s brain began to lift. “Something terrible, you say? The end of the world? Could be I could use one of those.”

His eyes narrowed as he considered. If Angelus was going to be denied possession of his Slayer, then the world could be damned, and the Slayer along with it! He smiled to himself. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. The Judge had been an ill-considered plan, doomed to failure from the start. He had brought the thing to life for no other reason than it had made Drusilla happy. He hadn’t really cared one way or another if it really resulted in the end of the world. Things were different now. His plans lay in ashes around him, and the one thing he wanted above all others had slipped through his fingers. The end of the world was starting to look good to him. Especially if it caused Buffy pain.

And Acathla! Now there was a demon capable of bringing destruction on the scale that he wanted! They would all suffer, just as he would suffer without the Slayer. He had almost had paradise within his grasp, and now it was forever out of his reach. If he couldn’t have her as his own, well, he could still be a profound influence on her life. And he’d keep her alive as long as possible, just as he promised. Alive, and awake, and most especially aware. The demon in him liked that part. Yes, he’d keep her alive as long as he could, so he could savor her suffering, and add to it where he could.

~ ~

Angelus knew that he had made the right choice in keeping Dru when his childe easily dispatched the second Slayer – the one that wasn’t his. While he had distracted Buffy, the Watcher had been taken from his stronghold with barely a fight. Still, Angelus was almost disappointed that he hadn’t had a chance to use the chainsaw on the man, but then it hardly mattered. His darling Dru had tricked the Watcher into giving him the secret of awakening the stone demon. Then end of world was near.

Soon, all the humans, including Buffy, would know nothing but eternal torment as their entire world was sucked into hell. If Buffy wouldn’t accept him in her world, he would make a place for her in his.

True, awakening Acathla wouldn’t exactly make Buffy be his again, but at least he would have the consolation of watching her suffer in agony for daring to turn against him. And he was sure there were many ways that he could add just a little bit more mental anguish to the physical torture. That was, after all, his second best talent.

When the Slayer finally showed up at the mansion, bearing the weapons he had always before kept her from bringing, he was unconcerned. He had been waiting for her. He wanted her to see how events would unfold. Wanted her to know that there was nothing she could do to stop it. Her presence would just make the end that much sweeter.

As she walked into the mansion, Buffy still wasn’t completely convinced that Spike would back her. She was half convinced that he’d double cross her as his Sire had done. They’d met one last time when she’d been fleeing from the police who wanted to arrest her for Kendra’s murder. One last time he had offered to help her destroy Angelus.

This time he had given her a reason. One that she could believe. He wanted Dru back. Wanted his unlife to go back to the way it had been before he’d come to Sunnydale. She knew it was wrong of her, but it hurt to hear Spike say that. It hurt to know that they’d both only been using her. Somehow she had felt that Spike’s feelings, at least, had been sincere.

She had hit him then, and told him that she hated him.

“And I’m all you’ve got,” he had replied, and he had been right. Her beautiful fantasy of a long life at the side of two men who would protect her and love her had ironically crumbled to dust. None of it had ever been real. Neither of them was a man; they were both vampires.

Still, she’d felt sure enough of Spike that she had left him alone for a few moments with her Mom, and her trust hadn’t been misplaced. And Spike had volunteered the information about Giles being taken prisoner. On the other hand, he had casually offered to kill the cop that had tracked her down. It was all too confusing. In the final analysis, either Spike would help her against Angel, or he wouldn’t.

Either way, her plan was the same. Distract the vampires long enough that Xander could rescue Giles, dust as many as she could, and at all costs, keep Angelus from sending the world into hell. What happened after that was immaterial. This was the final ending, the last scene where she saved the world one final time. Then she could rest. She was ready to rest.