Ritual of Fire and Ice

Buffy woke tangled in Spike's arms and the soft white comforter. Spike was still asleep, his arm around her waist, one hand wrapped in her hair. Everything was silent.

But the air felt...different. Buffy could see darting, speeding specks of color in the night. The magic, she thought. Left over from the ritual, which had worked. It had really worked! And it had been so easy, compared to Glory, or even the Ubervamp.

"Easy! Do you know how many impossible variables had to come together for that ritual?"

Startled, Buffy turned to face a man. Or a Being. Kind of a glowy white Alfred E. Newman kind of guy.

"Who are you?" She tried to wake Spike but he just rolled over onto his stomach with what sounded like a snore. Did vampires snore?

"Hmmm, who am I? I've had lots of names. I guess you can call me Gabriel. Or Apollo, though that one is really out of date."

"I like Alfred" Buffy muttered. "What are you doing here?"

"I have a duty. A mission, if you will. The world has changed."

With a wave of his hand the wall dissolved, and Buffy had a view that could not be seen from the Summer's home, a view of the horizon, far above the ground. She could see whole cities, and waves and swirls of color crackled all through the night sky.

"Is this the apocalypse?" she asked.

"Nope. You and your lover stopped that. This is the new order. The world has changed. Right now it is in a state of disarray."

"Is that dangerous?"

"Not really. No more than natural life is dangerous. Some deaths will happen. Some births, too."

"But the First Evil has been stopped."

Alfred grinned. "Oh, yes. Totally dispersed. Not enough left to even be angry about it. Doing the chaos dance, now."

"The chaos dance?"

"A term you probably don't understand. Public schools really don't get it. Chaos is necessary to order. The creative spark and all. Order just doesn't have that spark."

"So the world's all sparky right now."

"Yes, thanks to you and Spike. And to many others along the way."

"Others?"

"Yes, like Angelus and the gypsy. Quite a dance of misdirection there. Vampire with a soul, ooo ahhh! Evil became too orderly over time. Couldn't see outside the box. Didn't see that one coming until it was too late." He waved his glowy hand toward Spike.

"Still didn't get it--could have staked him a dozen times. Fatal error, there."

"And you," he continued. "Every time you didn't stake him it was a small miracle. I thought he was a goner in that alley. And we had no replacement."

"So no Spike, no ritual? None of the other guys would do?"

"Nope. No power with them, no fire. You'd have frozen 'em."

"What! I was the fire, the human! Spike was the ice, the vampire!"

Alfred laughed. "You just keep telling yourself that, honey! But we both know who lived life completely outside the box, a life of risk. You made a foray now and then, but you lived a life of duty. He lived on the edge of chaos all his undead life. That's fire."

"So why are you here now?"

"Well, Buffy, you can't stay here, on this plane."

"You're here to kill me?" She tried to wake Spike up again.

"Slayers," Alfred shook his head in disgust. "So negative. Just the opposte! Your gift is life! Behold!"

Wth a wave of his hand the view of the earth dissolved, and before them was a garden with a stand of trees set back on one side, masses of wild flowers and a meadow, hedge roses, small formal beds here and there with stone paths and bench seat all around. In the far distance was a Grecian style house of white marble, and beyond that, a body of water. The sea?

"What's this place?"

"Your realm. Like your own personal heaven. For eternity."

"But I'm not dead?"

"Nope. You'll never die. Wasn't twice enough?"

"Yeah. Yeah, twice was enough." She couldn't take her eyes off the peaceful beauty in front of her. "But what about my responsibilities? What about Dawn and Spike? I just can't leave them!"

"Dawn will be all right, especially if she knows you're at peace, and happy. And Spike-- he always wanted you happy, even more than he wanted you with him. He has a mission to fulfill now, in life. He's not ready for eternity yet. Couldn't be at peace. And someday he'll join you here."

"Join me? I won't be alone?"

"Well, how heavenly would that be?" Alfred nodded his head toward the trees. Two women stepped out from the trees into the meadow. Joyce and Tara were dressed in long flowing Grecian style gowns and carrying baskets of fruit.

"Mom? Tara?" Buffy started toward them but hesitated, looking at the sleeping Spike.

"Can you wake him? So he knows?"

"He's dreaming it. But, all right. Do you want the others here, too?"

She nodded, speachless.

Spike say up. Buffy realizes she was now gowned and tossed him the comforter. He wrapped it around himself and opened his mouth to begin talking when Dawn tumbled through the door, followed by Willow pushing Xander's chair.

Dawn glanced through the room and saw her mother. She tried to run to her but an invisible wall stopped her.

"Mom! Buffy, there's Mom!"

"What's going on?" yelled Spike.

"Tara?" Willow joined Dawn at the wall.

"Are we dead?" Spike asked.

"You are, undead, anyway. But no, none of you die today." Alfred said.

"This is some kind of higher power, guys. I'm calling him Alfred, " said Buffy. "He says I have my own heavenly realm, and I get to live there forever."

"With Mom and Tara? Do I get to come?" asked Dawn.

"When your life here is over, you can join Buffy for eternity, if you continue on this path," said Alfred.

"Path? What does that mean?"

"You know, help the helpless, fight the good fight."

"Like a slayer?" Dawn asked.

"No, there will be little need for slayers for a long time to come. Evil has been dispersed. Ten thousand years of planning, of millions of small insignificant right decisions culminated in last night's impossible marriage."

"So evil is gone? There's only good?" Xander looked skeptical.

"We're married?" Buffy didn't look too upset about it. She and Spike locked eyes.

"There's still free will." Alfred spoke to Xander. "Plenty of room for evil there. And evil intent will seek out mystical evil, rebuild it in some form or another."

"And yes," He said to Buffy. "Sacred marriage and all that. Not a church wedding, but still, it had its own charm."

"So when we die we go to Buffy's heaven?" Spike asked.

"Yes, as long as your will remains to do good, not evil."

"And Buffy can't stay here?"

"Nope. Her coming back opened the door to the First. Her place is...otherwhere, now. She's earned it. As soon as the fabric of reality reorganizes, she'll be there, you'll be here. So must it be."

"Can we visit? While the fabric of reality is disorganized?" Willow asked.

"Yes, I can make that happen. But as soon as it organizes, you will be here, Buffy will be there."

Alfred waved his arm toward the missing wall.

"You may cross."

He tapped Xander as Willow pushed him forward.

"In Buffy's reality, you'll be whole. But when you return to this world, your injuries will return."

"I understand."

"Will I burn in that sun?" Spike asked.

"No, no suffering there."

So they crossed, Dawn leaping and bouncing to her mother, Willow flying into Tara's arms and Xander striding tall and strong, Spike looking in wonder at the blue sky, at the sunlight shining on Buffy's hair...and everyone was hugging and talking at the same time.

"And just where are your clothes, young man?" Joyce skewered Spike with a glance and he squirmed. Then Joyce turned to Buffy, awaiting an explanation.

"Uh, Mom, we've got something to tell you..."

Days later, Xander and Spike sat on the white marble patio, drinking wine and fruit juice nectar, watching the girls play a game, some type of heavenly volleyball that involved bubbles and lost of laughter.

"Don't you hate to leave here, leave her? We won't be here much longer." said Xander.

"I know. But I can't stay, not yet. And I'd never take Buffy away from this, even if I could."

"You wouldn't want her with you?"

Spike was silent awhile. Then he spoke."How many times have you seen Buffy happy?"

"I don't know," Xander spoke slowly.

"I've seen her happy five times. A handful of days."

"The first was thaell ell of Willow's. You know, the one where we thought we were engaged. She was so happy. So was I. It was like all was right with the world...Even after that spell was over, I could never forget that. Always wanted to see her happy again, like that, but I didn't have the knack of it."

"Then, when her Mom got out of the hospital, and she seemed okay. Buffy was happy then for a little while..." His voice trailed off.

They both knew how that turned out.

"The third time was your wedding day. She was wearing that hideous gown, but she was so beautiful, because she was so happy. I loved seeing her that way. That's why I left, before I could do something to ruin it."

They both knew who ruined it.

"The next time wasn't like that, but she was still happy. When she rescued me from the First Evil. We were both so damaged, in so many ways...but still, she was happy. For a little while."

"The last was the ritual. When it was over, and she knew we loved each other, and that it had worked, she was happy."

"How many lives did she save? Saved the whole world more than once. Never taking a vacation, never resting...Always gore and demon slime, and graveyards , and Big Bads out to kill her and her friends. Heck, even Dru, who was evil undead and crazy besides, had more happy times that Buffy did."

"Think of the things she can do here! She can swim like a mermaid, have a dolphin for a pet, picnic with her mom and Tara...She wants to learn to spin and make tapestries. She deserves to play and be happy. Nothing in our world is as good as this, especially not me."

"She loves you."

"She does." Spike grinned and sent a thumbs up at Buffy, who was looking to see if he'd seen her big score.

"But the time was never right for us. Too much pain, too much violence. Not to mention that whole Urn of Osiris trouble."

"And I need to make atonement for my past, before the time will be right."

"She won't miss me, you know. To her the time apart won't even matter." Spikes eyes followed her every move, making a memory.

The girls finished their game and insisted they needed to cool off at the beach.

"Come on, Spike. We can swim to our little island." Buffy gulped his drink, and smiled at him, innocent and naughty at the same time.

Spike leaped up, grinning, "Race ya!" They flew down the white stairs to the sand, way ahead of every one else.

"We won't be here much longer," Xander said to Joyce.

She patted his hand."You'll be back, before you know it. Life is so short...and this is eternity. Don't be sad. It will all work out."

She linked her arm through his and they walked toward the beach. "Come on. Let's try to call Buffy's dolphins. Have you ridden on one yet?"


The End


This was an attempt to follow the Hero's Journey ME has used over the years...Nightmelody.