Destini Comuni

Disclaimer: See first section
Author’s notes: The word terminal has different definitions, all of which essentially meaning the end. In this case, the title ‘Terminal’ doesn’t mean death, but like a bus stop, or an airport terminal and what goes on there. Comings and goings.
Also, yes I know that American Werewolf in Paris didn’t come out until Christmas of ’97, but it fit the scene.

Chapter Nine: Terminal

Two Years Prior: 1997

Amy sighed, still staring up at her ceiling, unmoving. The sorceress’ limbs all splayed out across her bed in the same position she had fallen into a few hours before. She had walked into her room slowly, as if in a daze, turned around and fell. The phone in her room blinked incessantly in a futile attempt to alert its owner that she had messages waiting for her. She didn’t care. The phone had rang close to nine times in the past two hours, each going to message.
Amy sighed again, forcing herself not to cry. It didn’t mean anything to her that he had just up and left with his family three months into their relationship. She knew it wasn’t his fault, she rationalized. His father and mother were both military and said organization wanted them elsewhere, so thus he must go with them. The phone rang again and she ignored it, unwilling to move from her spot on the bed.
Finally summoning enough willpower to lean her head to the side and glance at the sixteenth clock she had bought. The time read half past eight, eliciting a groan from Amy. The sorceress reached out and flicked her wrist, purple lightning arcing out of her palm and destroyed yet another clock. Her anger seemed to always be directed in small, cheap appliances around her house, like clocks.
The sorceress sighed and realized she was supposed to of met up with Willow and Xander around an hour ago to see a movie and get ice cream. She then also realized it had been about five hours since she laid down on her bed and about six hours since he left.
Everything that had happen finally completely caught up to her, despite all her running. The tears started flowing and she closed her eyes to try to stem the stream. However relief was not what she found when she closed her eyes. What she found was the sight of the Hydra that had killed her three months prior. She let out a small, involuntary scream of terror at the sight and jumped out of bed. The, numerous, tooth-shaped scars around her abdomen burned painfully and she wrapped her arms around herself.
The flow of tears slowed to a stop as she crouched down to her floor, eyes squeezed shut. All she could see was the beast’s head coming at her and grabbing her around the waist in its jaws. Amy could feel the pain of the bite all over again her desperate attempt to get the Hydra to free her. The sorceress fell to her knees and let out a small moan of pain. With all her willpower, she forced back the incident deep into her mind again, trying to lock it away for good.
Amy jumped up quickly and strode over to phone and pressed the messages button.
“You have six new messages," The cold, robotic, female voice told her. “First message,"
“Hey Amy, its Liz. I’m coming back into town tonight, just to let you know. I’ll see you at school tomorrow," Buffy said shortly, her voice devoid of emotion, much like Amy’s had been over the summer months. Maybe Buffy was reliving the night every time she closed her eyes like Amy was.
She couldn’t entertain this thought any further because the next message started. “Hey! Ames! It’s Xand. I hope you remember our three-way movie date tonight! It’s gonna be fun! C’mon, American Werewolf in Paris? We loved the first one! 7:30 at the theater! See you there!” Xander said in his normal, goofy, pleading way. Amy chuckled a bit to herself. She agreed with him, it would have been fun.
“Hey…Amy…its Riley—“ Amy hit the skip button before she could actually hear what he had to say.
“Hi Amy, its Mom. The new glasses should arrive in the mail today. Try not break these! Oh—“ Amy skipped the message, knowing her mother was just going to tell her that her trip had been extended further.
“Hey hun, its Wil. I called out to you from my window but you didn’t seem home.” Amy frowned slightly, she always felt horrible if she ignored Willow. “So I’m calling you’re phone and leaving a message. Movies tonight. You, me, and Xander. It’ll be fun. A wolf flick, just for my little canine,” she said with a soft giggle. Amy smiled widely at that, she was Willow’s little canine. “So yeah, American Werewolf in Paris. Can’t wait to see you. Love ya, bye," Amy turned her head and smiled wistfully over at Willow’s room.
“Amy, its Riley…I’m sorry I had to leave…but I had no choice about it. I didn’t want to, but we go where we have to. I l—“ Amy didn’t want to hear that he loved her, it was too painful.
“Delete old messages?” The machine asked her. Amy hit the delete button quickly. “Messages deleted. No new messages," the voice said.
Amy walked back to her bed and laid down again, sighing and staring up at the ceiling. The sooner school started the better.

Amy walked slowly towards her friends, back in the comfort of the school’s halls. Passing the library was a real challenge for her since she didn’t want to break down in front of everyone. Amy put on her fake smile and walked up to Willow, Xander, Giles, and Jenny. “Hey, everyone!” She said cheerfully. Jenny smiled back cheerfully, fooled by Amy’s false emotion. Giles and Xander were taken aback as they hadn’t seen her smile like that since before that night. Willow frowned since she saw through Amy’s ruse but didn’t call her on it.
Amy saw Buffy coming down the stairs and waved cheerfully at her, Buffy returned the wave with equal happiness. Both knew the other was faking. Giles smiled gently at Buffy. “How are you?” he asked.
“Live and kicking," Buffy replied.
“Buffy killed a vampire last night," Willow said, nodding. Every looked around to see if anyone overheard.
“Uh, I think you can get a little more volume if you speak from the diaphragm,” Buffy told her a bit harshly, Amy scowled at her for taking her anger out on Willow. Buffy scowled back.
“Sorry…” Willow replied meekly. Amy placed her hand on Willow’s shoulder gently in a sign of consolation.
“We’ve got vampires?” Jenny asked quietly, glancing around nervously. “I thought the Hellmouth was closed,"
“Well, it’s, it’s closed, but not gone. The mystical energy that emanates from it is still concentrated in this area," Giles explained.
“Which means we’re still the undead’s favorite party town," Xander rephrased.
“I wonder if they’re here for any purpose, particularly," Giles mused.
Buffy shrugged. “You’re the Watcher. I just work here," she quipped.
“Yes, I-I must consult my books," Giles replied.
“Oh! Eight minutes and thirty-three seconds, pay up," Xander said to Willow, holding out his hand.
“I gotta get to class…” Amy said suddenly, turning on her heel and walking down the hall. She didn’t understand her sudden aversion to people, but it was there and she really didn’t want to be around them. Her solitude didn’t last because she felt a hand grab hers softly and turn her around. Amy knew it was Willow as soon as they’re skin touched. She knew that feeling anywhere. However, Amy couldn’t look up into Willow’s curious stare.
“What’s wrong?” Willow asked softly, taking Amy’s chin in her hand and lifting her head so they’re eyes met. She could always tell how Amy was feeling if she could just look into those indigo eyes.
Amy looked away with her eyes, she stared at something off to the side on the floor. “Riley…” she started, but couldn’t get it out.
Willow knew better than to assume she understood what Amy meant by that. “What happened?” she asked.
Amy made eye contact, a look of completely repressed pain in her eyes. “He left," she said simply. “The military wanted his family somewhere else, so he’s gone,"
“I’m so sorry…” Willow said softly, wrapping Amy in a hug she knew she needed, but would never admit in public.
Amy hugged her back. “Thanks…” she whispered. “No more of this relationship crap though, it hurts to much,"
Willow kissed her cheek. “You’ll bounce back, you’re you…” she said gently, smiling slightly.
Amy laughed. “I guess I will," Amy took Willow’s hand and started walking down the hall together. “Ready to go to English?” she asked.
Willow nodded. “Ready as we’ll ever be,"

Amy accidentally closed her eyes in class and felt the burning of her scar start up. She gritted her teeth and tried vainly to fight away the images. The hydra mocked her like usual in her head. She died again in her head. Finally she opened her eyes and turned her head to the left, seeing Willow looking at her sadly. The redhead mouthed a sympathetic apology to her and Amy smiled weakly in return. Things never seemed to change.

“You should talk to her, see what’s making Buffy act this way,” Giles suggested to Amy. The sorceress groaned.
“Why do I have to be the one?” she whined.
“Because you are her longest standing friend,” Giles explained.
“Fine…fine, I’ll do it,” she succumbed.

Amy put her arm up against the locker next to Buffy’s to block the slayer’s path. “Okay. What’s wrong,” Amy stated more than asked.
Buffy glared at her and forcibly shoved her aside. Amy caught her balance and stood up straight, as if nothing happened. “You’re gonna lose all your friends this way," Amy stated, crossing her arms.
“Well, good! That means I don’t have to watch out for them, cause they’re just a liability to me," Buffy replied icily, ignoring the stares she got by people walking by.
“That includes me," Amy said, her temper flaring. She was really fighting to keep it in check.
“Even better," Buffy answered. “I’ve had enough of your parlor tricks and your camaraderie. We might have been best friends when we were little girls, Amelia, but we’re older now, and I’m really tired of you," she spat out.
“Very well, Elizabeth. Have fun on your own," Amy said curtly, turning on her heel and storming down the hall, her anger so fierce the lights shorted out as she passed under them and everyone received a static shock as she walked by them.

“I tried, Giles! I really gave it my all. But she’s really determined to throw everyone away,” Amy ranted at him.
Giles sighed and drew his glasses from his face and cleaned them with his handkerchief. The sorceress pushed off the library table and headed to the door. “Let her burn, I say,” she stated, throwing the doors open.
“Where are you headed?” Giles asked her worriedly.
“To blow off some pent up energy,” Amy replied.

Angel walked approached Amy slowly in the alleyway, knowing she was in full hunting mode and he didn’t feel like being dusted. Amy screamed in fury and the vampire in front of her exploded into dust without her raising a hand.
Both her and Angel noticed the demon coming out of the shadows to her. It didn’t feel right to Angel though, it felt fake. Like it had just been summoned. The vampire started scanning the area for the summoner, but finding no one.
The Hydra demon stalked closer to Amy, who started backing away slowly, her body emanating fear. “No…I k-killed you…I watched you d-die," She stuttered out.
The Hydra hissed out in broken English. “I killed you. Watched you die," it repeated, lashing out with one of its three heads at her face.
Amy let out a small, terrified scream, flung herself backwards and landed hard on the ground, her elbows scraped across the ground and drew blood. The sorceress scrambled to get up, backing up against a dumpster.
The Hydra let out a reptilian laugh and kept coming at her. Amy whimpered, tears running down her cheeks as she pressed her self up against the dumpster. The sorceress raised her arms up to hide herself.
“Get up!” Angel yelled at her. Amy flung herself to the side and hit the ground hard, clamoring to her feet. “You just gonna let it kill you again?” he asked her, realizing what had happened. Amy’s fear personified itself into flesh through her sorceress powers and revived the Hydra.
Amy snarled and materialized her saber, running at the beast. Angel’s words made something in her snap and she took off one head of the Hydra. The sorceress placed her hand on the neck of another head and set it on fire. One head left. Amy screamed in pure fury and the beast merely exploded into ash.
The exhausted sorceress fell against the wall, crying heavily. Amy slid to the ground and wrapped her arms around her knees, letting her tears flow.

“She's possessed!” Willow exclaimed, throwing her arms up into the arm and sitting down in Amy’s lap. The raven-haired girl wrapped her arms around her redhead’s waist.
Giles walked back from the machine with his soda in hand. “Possessed?” he asked.
“That’s the only explanation that makes any sense. I mean, you should’ve seen her last night. That wasn’t Buffy,” Willow stated.
Xander shot her an incredulous look. “Are we overlooking the idea that she may be very attracted to me?” After registering the looks the other three were giving him, he conceded. “She’s possessed,”
“Possessed by what?” Giles asked.
“A possessing thing!” Willow exclaimed, getting worked up.
Amy rolled her eyes and gave Willow a small squeeze around the waist. ‘Well, that narrows it down, love,” she whispered.
Xander turned to Giles. “Well, you’re the expert. Hey, maybe when the Master killed her some… mystical bad guy transference thing happened,” he theorized.
“I think you’re completely off-base,” Amy said, a bit too darkly for how she intended. The sorceress forced herself to calm down and reassure the quite startled Willow. “She has issues. The Master killed her. That sort of thing sticks with you but doesn’t leave a minty aftertaste. Every time she closes her eyes she sees her killer and sees herself die. That makes her believe he could come back, since he never left her. So she has convinced herself that she’s invulnerable… for the very reason that she feels—” Amy explained from all to much personal experience.
Xander cut her off. “That’s a very interesting point about trout, you just brought up now,” he diverted the topic away from the now present Slayer.
“Morning, Elizabeth,” Amy said curtly to Buffy.
The Slayer blatantly ignored her and made eye contact with Giles alone. “Master’s gone,” she said simply, fuming anger hiding just below the surface of her eyes.
“I’m sorry?” Giles stuttered out his reply.
“The Master. I went by his grave last night, and they have a vacancy,” she said, her voice dripping humorlessly.
“Good God!” Giles exclaimed.
“What would somebody want with Master bones?” Willow asked.
“A trophy, a horrible conversation piece?” Xander offered.
“They're gonna bring him back. They're gonna bring the Master back to life, and I seem to recall you telling me he was history,” Buffy spat at Giles accusingly.
“Buffy, I-I-I've never heard of a-a revivification ritual being successful.” Giles replied defensively, removing his glasses to clean them.
“But you have heard of them? Thanks for the warning.” Buffy shot back scathingly.
“Well, Buffy, Giles did bury him and—“ Willow tried to say softly to defuse the situation by Buffy cut her off harshly.
“Look, this is Slayer stuff, okay? Could we have just a little less from the civilians, please?” she said venomously.
Amy’s blood boiled defensive at the open attack at Willow. Xander jumped up from his seat. “Okay, that's just about enough!” Buffy shot Xander a withering glare and opened her mouth to say something malicious to him.
Willow got up out of Amy’s lap and grabbed her backpack, “Then I hope he kills you again,” she spat out, walking off towards her class without another word, Amy in tow.

“I think this is beyond possessed,” Willow fumed, glancing sidelong at Amy as the pair strode towards the library.
Amy took Willow’s hand in hers and gave it a small squeeze. “I…I want to sympathize with her…” she said weakly. Upon receiving Willow’s foul look, she clarified. “Cause, I…I died, as well. Until recently, er, today, I haven’t been able to actually live,”
Willow nodded ran her thumb over the back of Amy’s hand. “You locked yourself in your room almost all of summer and ignored everyone, but…this is different, Buffy’s openly hateful to us, you never said a mean thing to me,” Willow pointed out, pushing the hallway door open for them to step through, brushing past some late stragglers to leave school.
“I guess it’s just the way I deal with stress and depression, I hide. Buffy, well, back when we lived in L.A., would lash out at anyone whenever she felt threatened. I know that until today, I felt threatened every time I closed my eyes…” Amy ventured, her eyes fixing on the Boiler room door, her danger-sense bouncing off the walls. The Sorceress ignored the feeling and pushed some of her raven hair behind her ear, adjusting her glasses afterward.
Willow kept her eyes trained on the floor and the tiled pattern passing under their feet. She wouldn’t let Amy rationalize Buffy’s behavior to her. Amy sighed as she felt Willow’s mind shut her out, so she started to let go of her hand. Willow wouldn’t let her however and the redhead gripped Amy’s hand in hers. Willow looked up as they approached the double swing doors of the library. Through the portholes the hacker could see Giles, Xander and the girl in question all around the table.
Both girls took a deep breath before pushing open the door and striding in right as Giles started to read from the musty old book in his hand. “Alright, alright, I-I-I’ve got something. It’s Latin, so bear with me. Uh, to revive the vampire they need his bones, uh… w-which they have, and, um, the blood… this is very unclear, of the closest person… uh, someone connected to the vampire,” he said, his brow furrowing in thought.
“That’d be me,” Buffy replied with an air of arrogant finality.
“Perhaps,” Giles said, not wanting to jump to any conclusion quickly.
“We were close. We killed each other. It really promotes togetherness,” Buffy restated with dry humor.
“Well, is there anything on when the ceremony might take—“ Xander’s question was cut off abruptly by a rock flying through the window. Xander let out a startled yelp and tripped over his chair trying to stand up and move back.
Buffy caught the rock deftly and turned it over in her hands repeatedly. “This is Cordelia’s,” she muttered, removing the note from the rock. “Come to the Bronze before it opens, or we make her a meal,” Buffy read to the group.
Amy pushed the twin doors open and strode in with Willow in hand. The Slayer didn’t pay any attention, which the pair expected and appreciated.
“They’re gonna cook her dinner?!” Xander asked incredulously, the group looked at him the same way in kind. “I’ll pretend I never said that,” he noted ashamedly
“What do we do?” Willow asked.
Buffy exhaled tiredly. “I go to the Bronze and save the day,” she said, turning to the exit.
“I don't like this.” Xander said.
“Nor I!” Giles added.
Buffy turned back around sharply. “Yeah? Well, you guys aren't going,”
“What do you mean we aren’t going?” Amy shot at her.
“I can't do it anymore. I can't look after the four of you guys while I'm fighting,” Buffy stated condescendingly.
“Well, what about the rest of the note?” Willow asked.
“What rest of the note?” Buffy replied.
“The part that says, 'P.S. This is a trap'?” Willow spat out.
“You'll be playing straight into their hands,” Giles stated, taking off his glasses to clean them.
“I can handle this,” Buffy said darkly.
“Stop saying that! God, what's wrong with you?” Willow asked desperately.
“Cordelia may be dead,” Xander pointed out.
Buffy wasn’t listening, she had made up her mind long ago and wouldn’t let anyone change it. “This is my fight,” She said with finality. The Slayer grabbed her coat and bag and stormed out of the library. Willow sat down, defeated. Xander shook his head at the arrogant Slayer and Amy scoffed, walking over to the books.

Giles read over the same page of the book he had been focusing on for a good twenty minutes. Amy was pacing back and forth, her senses shut down to block out the anger of her friends.
“I still think we should’ve gone with her,” Willow said.
“Buffy’s about to lose it. I think we should be trying to reach minimum safe distance,” Xander replied.
“Xander, you know it’s a trap!” the redheaded hacker exclaimed.
“Ah! Ah, ah, ah! Uh, uh, the Latin is, is translated from the Sumerian, a-a-and rather badly. Closest to the Master actually translates as 'nearest'. Physically. The, the, the person or persons who were with him... when he...” Giles explained, looking up at the level above them, seeing the several vampires up there. One raised what looked like a hand gun and leveled it at Amy. “It is a trap.”
The sorceress gasped when she felt a dart puncture her neck and her vision start to blur. As she fell she saw Willow run to her but get hit by a dart as well, and the vampires jump over the railing. Giles words resounded in her ears as tunnel vision hit her and she went black.
“It just isn’t for her…”

“Enough!” the one word bellowed out loud enough stirred Amy from her drug induced sleep. The sorceress awoke in the arms of her redhead. Amy looked back at Willow and smiled softly at her, her mind still hazy from the drugs and she could tell Willow’s was, too.
The pair of sorceress’ looked over to Buffy who was squaring off against a vampire with a large sledge hammer. “Your day is done, girl. I'll grind you into a sticky paste, and hear you beg before I smash in your face,” he threatened her poetically.
“So, are you gonna kill me or are we just making small talk?” Buffy asked.
The vampire bellowed indignantly and charged her. The other vampire rushed her from the opposite angle. The blonde slayer looked back and forth at the two vampires with a bored expression on her face. Buffy picked the flaming torch and post and broke the end of it. She turned it over a few times in her hands before holding it out flat.
The one vampire impaled himself on the broken end and dust hit the ground. The vampire with the sledgehammer ran into the flaming end and began screaming as he burned up. The vampire, with the last of his strength raised the sledgehammer up in a last desperate attempt to kill Buffy. He turned to dust before he could do anything.
“It's over,” Willow whispered to Amy.
Amy shook her head softly. “No, its not.”
Willow buried her face in Amy’s neck, trying to regain her senses back from the drugs. The two girls heard the sounds of repeated smashing and crashing coming from where Buffy was. The sounds of a skeleton being destroyed.
“Do you forgive her?” Amy asked Willow. Willow nodded weakly, holding Amy a bit tighter. Amy smiled. “Good, I think she’ll be back to normal after this,”

Buffy walked into class and saw Willow, Amy, and Xander all at their desks, leaving one open for her. The blonde slayer looked ashamed as she walked over to them, however what greeted her was not angry glares like she expected, but small, friendly smiles.
“Hey, Buffy,” Willow said gently.
“Hey…” Buffy replied.
“We saved you a seat,” Amy pointed out, smiling slightly.
Buffy sat down in the seat, biting the corner of her lip. Xander nudged her. “There’s a rumor going around that Mr. Cox is the most boring teacher in the entire world. Like, I think he won a belt or something,” he stated.
Buffy nodded in agreement. “Like, yes,”
“Well, I hear he nods off a lot. So that’s a plus,” Willow added.
“So, we Bronzin’ it tonight?” Amy asked.
“Wednesday, it’s kinda beat,” Willow replied.
“Well, we could grind our enemies into talcum powder with a sledgehammer, but, gosh, we did that last night,” Xander said, the three teens grinning widely at their friend. Buffy returned the smile in kind.
“Hey, I got a plan: how ‘bout miniature golf?” Xander asked.
“There’s no course here,” Willow pointed out.
“Okay, uh, miniature tennis! A very tiny form of tennis that we could invent...” Xander ventured.
Amy smiled and put her hand over Buffy’s, leaning over to her ear. “Good to have you back,” she said softly.
Buffy smiled. “Good to be back,”