Title: Somewhere Somehow

Summary: Post NFA Buffy has some very odd dreams. Add in a prophecy and it’s business as unusual for our girl

Rating: PG

AN: Written for the SMG prompt Somewhere in time, we’ll find a way.  Thanks to Lisa for holding my hand on this one.

 

 

 

 

“I can’t fight you,” she said, her voice trembling with tears and exhaustion.

 

“You have to. I’m going to fight you. It’s the only chance either of us have to make it out of here alive,” he told her. His fingers threaded with hers through the bars of the cage.

 

She shook her head, lashes glittering with tears. “If you’re dead then my life is over.”

 

He smiled and she saw the truth in his eyes. She was going to be the one to walk away. “No. Because as long as you’re alive, so am I.”

 

*

 

“Giles, you don’t understand. This was surround sound dreaming. This was a night at the IMAX dreaming.”

 

“Prophecy then?”

 

Buffy shook her head. “Only if a demon is planning on transporting me back to Ancient Roman gladiator times.”

 

Giles considered that for a moment. “Most likely not but I’ll do a bit of research.”

 

“There was something else,” Buffy said after a moment. “Angel was in the dream with me. We were…us…but not us.”

 

“Oooo was he dressed in a toga?” Willow asked, perking up.

 

Buffy laughed slightly then sobered remembering how she’d woken with tears streaming down her face. “No. He was gladiator too. We had to fight each other and somehow I knew…I was going to win.”

 

 

*

 

“Accalia, don’t do this. There are other young women,” he begged her.

 

“Other young women who will have their lives and their futures taken away because my life was spared,” she argued.

 

“I am in the position to spare you. Allow me that luxury.”

 

She smiled softly at her king, stepping closer and laying a hand against his cheek. “My dear, sweet, king,” she whispered before tilting her head up, her lips brushing his.

 

He pulled her closer, crushing her to his chest, ravaging her mouth. “I could spare you. Only a virgin-“ he started.

 

She pulled away then silenced him with her fingers on his lips. “Shhhh. What will we ever be besides this? Clandestine meetings behind closed doors. You’re a king and I’m…not a queen. I never will be. One of these days my father will insist I marry and then I will be truly dead. But as long as you carry me here,” she laid her hand over his heart. “They can’t touch me.”

 

 

The Aztec king looked down at the young virgin woman lying on the altar. Her dark brown eyes were wide with fear but she lie there of her own will. Her sacrifice would please the gods and save her people. It was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

 

He raised the dagger above his head and then made a request of her that he never made of the other sacrifices.

 

“Close your eyes,” he whispered.

 

*

 

 

“Okay, so the dreams are getting freakier.  Is there anything in your research about a history demon who has a mad on to rehabilitate those of us who slept in history class?” Buffy asked as she flopped down in a char across the table from Giles.

 

 

“Another point in time?” Giles asked without looking up from h is book.

 

“Yeah…uhm Aztecs I think. This time I was the guy who cut out the girl’s heart. Way gross, way freaky and way ready for you to figure out why,” Buffy said as she picked up one of the books off the table and flipped through it.

 

“And did this one include-“ Giles cleared his throat. “Angel?”

 

“Yeah…he was the girl I sacrificed,” Buffy answered. Her voice was quiet and a little distant. “Maybe I should call him. I mean if I’m having dreams about him.”

 

“Let’s ascertain that this isn’t more then historical overload. The girls have been dragging you about Europe enthusiastically,” Giles responded.

Buffy nodded and turned back to the book she’d picked up.

 

 

*

 

 

“You’ve got to go. Run as far away from here as possible,” he told her. His hands squeezed hers so tightly they turned white. His green eyes were wild, panicked and her dark ones were rimmed red from crying.

 

“I don’t have anywhere to run to. Everything I am, everything I own is here,” she told him. Her voice quivered as she dipped her head, placing a kiss against his collar bone.

 

“You don’t understand. They’ve branded you a witch. There’s nothing I can do about it. They will burn you alive,” he pleaded with her. “And I will have to watch it.”

 

She smiled softly and looked up at him. Her face was tranquil, accepting of her fate. “Close your eyes.”

 

 

*

 

“Witch trials, burning alive at the stake…what have you got for me on freaky dream demons, Giles,” Buffy said as she walked into his office, the door swinging back against the wall. “I’m considering never sleeping again.”

 

“Good lord, you dreamed you were being burned alive?” he exclaimed.

 

“No…they were burning Angel alive…only it wasn’t Angel it was a girl…with his eyes and…somehow it was him,” Buffy told him.

 

“I think perhaps you should call Angel,” Giles finally admitted.

 

Buffy nodded and fished her cell phone out of her pocket.  To his credit, Giles didn’t say anything about the number being stored in her phone. She made a face when she got Angel’s voicemail.

 

“Do you know how to use voicemail? I mean are you ever gonna get this or will it be like years from now? Anyway, it’s Buffy. I need you to call me back. There’s some weird going on here and I wanted to see if there was weird going on there…besides the usual weird ‘cause that’s the kind ours is…not the usua-dammit. It cut me off.” She frowned as she hung up the phone. “Should I call back?”

 

“I think that will suffice for now. I’d like to ask a few questions about the dreams,” Giles told her and indicated the chair across from him. Once Buffy had sat down he began. “You feel like the people in these dreams are you and Angel? Or do you merely identify with the people? It wouldn’t be so unusual, given your history with Angel.”

 

Buffy shook her head. “No. I don’t feel anything. I know we’re those people. It’s-it’s not identifying. I feel their pain. When I cut out Angel’s heart…it was my hands that did it, not someone I was identifying with.”

 

“But you said you were male in the dream,” Giles protested. “An Aztec King,” he consulted his notes on the subject.

 

“Yeah…but it was still me and the girl…she had Angel’s eyes. She was Angel. She felt like Angel…to me I mean.  I can’t explain it, Giles. If I could I wouldn’t be here right now. Angel and I are the people in the dreams. Believe me if I could sit back and watch them from a distance I would.”

 

Giles nodded and made some more notes. “There’s been nothing unusual occur outside of the dreams?”

 

“Nope. The usual vamps who never get the hint to move to a slayerless corner of the world, but other then that…things have been normal,” Buffy told him.

 

“Alright. I’ll continue to look into this. Do let me know if you have another dream,” he told her.

 

“You’ll be the first,” Buffy sighed and glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’m meeting Will for mochas but I’ll check back in before patrol.”

 

*

“Kill me,” she hissed in whispered tones. She knew if those beyond the wall heard her they’d both be brutally murdered.

 

“No,” he told her, his green eyes flashing fire.

 

“If you don’t, they’ll brand you as traitor, kill you and then they’ll kill me or worse,” she told him, dark eyes pleading. “I don’t want to go that way.”

 

“We don’t-you’ll go to a prison,” he said.

 

“And that’s better? No. I don’t want to live like that,” she whispered. Her face softened and her eyes flooded with tears when he picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. She bit her bottom lip, making the decision for him.

 

“And I don’t want to live without you,” he told her desperately.

 

“You never will,” she smiled. She took his face in both hands and pressed a hard kiss to his lips. She tucked her nose in the crook of his neck and whispered against his skin “I’m going to run outside. Shoot me in the back. Make it quick. If they get ahold of me they won’t.”

 

He didn’t remember her pulling away from him. He could still feel her tucked into his body. He didn’t remember watching her run only that her dress bloomed red flowers across her back before she fell.

 

The appearance of his commanding officer jerked him out of the stupor he’d slipped into. “She tried to run.”

 

The officer sighed, deeply annoyed. “Pick up the body. We’ll burn it with the rest.”

 

 

*

 

“Reincarnation?” Buffy asked. Angel was sitting across the table from her staring slack jawed at Giles suggestion. “You’re actually suggesting that all these dreams I’ve been having are reincarnations of Angel and I?”

 

Giles adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “I know it is rather far fetched but I’ve come to the end of my ropes regarding this matter and I’ve spoken to an expert in the field. He seems to think it’s a likely theory.”

 

“Yeah…a likely crack theory. Let’s focus here. There’s got to be something bigger at stake here. End of the world, prophecy kind of stuff,” Buffy responded then turned to Angel. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

 

He followed her out into the night air and stopped at the doorway. She instinctively, protectively wrapped her arms around herself.

 

 “I’m sorry we dragged you all the way for this. I thought Giles had real answers and I thought you were in danger.”

 

Angel shook his head. “It’s-it’s fine. I can always be here when you need me.” His eyes never left Buffy’s. “I do need to get back though. There’s some things going on in LA.”

 

“Things that require help-y Buffy?” she asked.

 

A grin raced across Angel’s face before it fell and he shook his head. “Not right now, but if it does…I’ll call.” He started to turn and stopped, picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles.

 

Her breath caught and she had to remind her heart to beat. She stepped toward him, cupping his face with both hands and pressing a hard kiss to his mouth. She pulled away panting for breath and buried her nose in the crook of his neck.  He held her for a moment, gathering his strength then turned and walked away.

 

She watched but didn’t remember him pulling away from her. She could still feel his body tucked into hers and her eyes refused to see how he walked away.

 

*

 

 

She couldn’t deny when she looked into his eyes that it was Angel. Haunted and full of love. He was confused but he was back. He crushed her to him, whispering her name and she watched in horror as Acathla opened his mouth.

 

It was all so numb, such a blur as she pulled back and kissed him then whispered “Close your eyes.”

 

 

*

 

 

Angel had waited until the last minute to call. They’d been fighting back demons for days, trying to give what was left of his team time to figure things out. They’d come to a grim conclusion and he’d only called when he realized there was no other way and someone or something had been trying to tell her that for months. Even now the hoards of demons gathered outside, providing an eerie soundtrack to their conversation.

 

Buffy stood in the lobby of the hotel now. They were alone and she knew from the brief glimpse of the terror outside that if Willow hadn’t teleported her in she would have never made it here.

 

 “So what…now you think Giles was right?” she asked.

 

Angel shrugged. “The research supports it. The prophecy…I’m supposed to fight on one side or the other. If I pick good it keeps going…forever. If I pick evil…there’s not going to be much worth saving.”

 

“So your answer is this?” she spread her hands out wide.

 

“Buffy, your dreams have been trying to tell you this for months.”

 

“No. I don’t accept that. I don’t-so what? My fate, our destiny is for me to kill you over and over again?” she screamed, her voice echoing off the walls.

 

Angel shrugged again in answer. The answers had exhausted him. Looking for new answers had worn at him and the battle had taken the rest.

 

“No…I won’t do it. I killed you to save the world once and I won’t do it again,” Buffy answered. “Let them send armies of Hell.”

 

“Buffy…”

 

“I dreamed about it last night. The night I killed you. The night I stuck a sword through you.” Her voice had gone hollow and distant. “I can’t do it again. It will kill me this time.”

 

“And if you don’t, thousands…maybe more are going to die. You’ll die,” Angel answered, stepping toward her. His hands went to her shoulders and he pulled her into his embrace. One hand cradled her head against his chest, the other went to the small of her back, holding her there.

 

“I’m supposed to die, Angel. I’m a slayer. I was born to die but you’re immortal. You’re the one that’s supposed to live.  Maybe that’s why I’m being shown the dreams. That’s why we’re getting it wrong over and over again. I’m always the one killing you. Maybe you should be the one to kill me,” she half whispered against his chest, the words tangling with her tears.

 

“I don’t know about the other times…about your dreams but I know the prophecy is clear here. The only way it stops is if I die,” Angel told her.

 

“So why me?” Buffy asked.

 

“I think it’s pretty clear you have to kill me.”

 

 

*

 

“Close your eyes.”

 

There wasn’t a portal this time or a sword. Just a stake and a kiss. Only dust and one slip of a girl to prove he was ever there.

 

She never intended to survive afterwards and no one was surprised to find her broken and bloody once the demons were gone. Her tombstone didn’t say anything witty this time, just Beloved and her name.

 

*

 

 

“Close your eyes,” she told him laughingly.

 

“I don’t want to close my eyes. I might drop her,” he argued with her from the other side of the door.

 

“You’re not going to drop her. I want the first time you see her to be a surprise. Close your eyes. I promise I won’t let you drop her.”

 

He closed his eyes simply because it was what he did. She told him to close his eyes and he did it. “Okay but if you…”

 

He never finished his sentence. His arms were full of a tiny, warm bundle. He opened dark eyes to look into his daughter’s own dark brown eyes.

 

“She’s…” he swallowed hard, not having words for how beautiful she was.

 

“I know,” she said, her smile evident in the tone of her voice. She watched him instead of the baby, her green eyes trained on his face. They both laughed when his eyes slipped up to hers.

 

Somehow it seemed right that this brand new life should begin with him closing his eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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