Part 2: Always

When Angel finds out about Buffy, will he be able to move on?

Angel was so glad to be home. The world they had entered had started out pretty nice, since Angel could go out in the sun, and see himself in a mirror. But that world had somehow exploited his inner-demon, making it hard for him to seperate the two.

Cordelia, Gunn, Wesley, and Fred all walked with him to the hotel where Angel lived. He knew his friends were as glad as he was to be home. And Fred, well, Angel knew he wouldn't be seeing the last of her.

When the hotel was in sight, Angel got this really corny idea that he knew just fit somehow. He jogged to the front of the group. "Let me say it." he said, sounded half-excited, half-exhausted. "What?" Cordy asked. Angel grabbed the door handles. As he pulled open the door, he announced, "There's no place like-", but a surprising sight stopped his words.

Willow sat somberly on a cushioned seat, her hands in her lap. Angel at once knew something was wrong. There was some horrible, unthinkable reason why Willow was here. She looked like she had just lost her best friend. Her best friend... Oh, God. Buffy, Angel realized. "Buffy." he said her name out loud. Oh, no. What happened? he asked himself over and over.

"Willow, what's wrong?" Cordelia must have sensed something too, from the way her voice sounded. Then, Angel just knew. He knew what was wrong.

Willow got up. "I, I need to tell you guys something." she stuttered. "Something happened, something, something bad." Angel refused to believe what his gut was telling him was the truth. "Willow, what happened? Has someone captured Buffy? What do you need us to do?" his words came out in a rush. He hurried past Willow to grab a weapon. "Who the hell do I need to fight?" He was ready to take on the entire underworld if it meant Buffy was okay. "Angel, stop!" Willow's eyes were filling with tears.

"What is going on?" Wesley asked the now crying red-head. Willow looked at Angel. He stared back, his eyes daring her to say what his heart already knew, and what his mind didn't want to believe. Willow sobbed uncontrollably. "Buffy is... dead." she cried.

Cordelia gasped, which turned into tears as she buried her head in Wesley's shoulder, who was also crying, though not as openly as her. Gunn and Fred were extremely confused, but knew that their friends were greiving, so they just stood.

The entire world stopped for Angel. Nothing exsisted. Buffy was gone. She would never laugh again. Never cry. Never.

Then he was back in the world. He was there with the crying, and the confusion. He sunk to his knees and cryed openly. Heavy, heartbroken sobs that echoed in the old hotel. Willow bent down and wrapped her arms around him, crying with him, sharing his pain. The world had pulled Buffy and him apart 2 years ago. The world had made sure they were miserable, time and time again. All they did was save the world, and this is what they got in return. Now, the world had made sure that they were seperated for eternity.

Inside the hotel lobby, the world Angel was so mad at had just ended.

They cried like that for a little while, and then Angel fled the room, locking himself in the basement. Willow was in the bathroom trying to compose herself. Cordelia was trying desperately to dry her tears, but she couldn't stop scolding herself for how much of a bitch she'd been to Buffy when she was alive.

Fred and Gunn felt extremely out of place. "Who was Buffy?" Fred asked. Gunn shrugged. Wesley was sitting where Willow had been when they came in, staring down at his hands. Cordelia was next to him, her face in her hands. Willow came out of the bathroom. "Is he still down there?" she asked no one in particular. Wesley nodded. "Maybe someone should, um, go down and talk to him?" she suggested. "Leave him alone for a while." Cordelia said unexpectedly. "He, he really loved her. We all did, but Angel..."

"Um, I'm really sorry, but... who was Buffy?" Fred asked, her curiousity taking over her sympathy. "She was a person that Angel knew a while ago, and they were very close." Wesley stated simply. Willow scoffed at him. "Buffy was Angel's soul mate. They were more in love than anyone else on this earth. But Angel was a vampire, and Buffy was the vampire Slayer. Buffy was the only person who could make Angel happy. But if Angel gets happy, he looses his soul, and starts killing people. So it was too dangerous for them to be together. Angel left Buffy so she could be happy, so she could be with someone normal. But they never stopped loving each other, and they never will!" Willow's bold declaration stopped everyone in their tracks. Fred and Gunn were stunned. Cordelia and Wesley were even more devasted from what they knew to be true.

Then, unexpectedly, Cordelia started talking. Quietly, and sadly. "Angel won't always be a vampire." she told Willow. "Huh?" the red-head was confused. "There was a prophecy. If Angel completes his redemption, he'll become human. When he found out, you could just see him thinking about Buffy." Willow looked at her strangely. "You're really close to him aren't you?" Cordelia looked back at her. "He's my best friend." she replied. Then she looked at Gunn and Wesley. "One of my 3 best friends. We're a family." Gunn and Wesley smiled thinly back at her.

Then, Cordelia looked worriedly back at the basement door.

Angel glared at the heavy bag that was hanging from the ceiling. Nothing was right anymore. Nothing would ever be the same. His Buffy. His love. Gone. Rage flew up inside of him. He slammed his fist into the heavy bag. Over and over. Tears streamed down his face as he pulverized the thing.

This won't bring her back, the very small, rational part of his brain told him. He grabbed the heavy bag, and threw it against the wall with all his strenth. It crashed against the cement wall and broke open. Angel couldn't care less. He pick up some old crates and smashed them against the ground, the wall, and hard surface he could find. He slammed his fist into the wall so many times, his fist was bloody and tattered. He wanted to destroy everything on the room, but he knew it still wouldn't do any good.

He needed someone to fight. Something to blame for her death. Whoever had done this to her would be gone by morning.

Angel burst angrily through the door, startling everyone in the room. He stalked up to Willow. "Who killed her?" he barked. Willow looked at him pleadingly. "You don't have to know." she looked away. Angel decided he didn't have time for this. He savagely grabbed Willow by the throat. "Who did this to her?! Tell me, damnit!" he yelled. Cordelia ran up to him. "Angel, let go! You're hurting her! She can't tell you if she's dead." she reminded him.

He let go and stepped back a little. Willow didn't looked scared of him, but she spoke cautiously, at first. "For the past few months, Buffy had been waging a war against a god. An evil god, named Glory, who wanted to find something called the key. Angel, do you remember Dawn?" she asked. Angel nodded. "Buffy's sister." he clarified. "She isn't really Buffy's sister. She's the key, and some monks sent her to Buffy so she could protect her. Glory found out she was the key, and captured her. Glory tried to use Dawn to open the door between the demon world and ours so she could go home. The books said that if Glory bled Dawn, that would open the door, and it wouldn't close until the blood stopped."

Angel's eyes widened. "Like my deal with Acathla." he said. Willow nodded. "Exactly. But, by the time Buffy got to Dawn, the bleeding ritual had already started. The door was open. But Buffy wouldn't let Dawn die. She threatened to kill us if we tried to use Dawn to close the door, 'cause that would mean killing her. Then, Buffy realized that, since Dawn and her were sisters, they had the same blood." Willow stopped, her sad eyes communicating the rest.

"Oh, my God!" Cordelia gasped. "Buffy killed herself to close the door." Wesley also realized what Willow had meant. "She died a hero." Willow said quietly. Angel was still. Too still.

"Take me to Glory." he said stonely. Willow shook her head. "Giles killed her." Angel wasn't fazed. "Then take me to Dawn." his voice was getting louder, more desperate. "What are you gonna do, Angel?! Kill her? Nothing's going to bring Buffy back, so killing anyone you want to blame for her death isn't going to help! No one deafeated her. No one caused her to die. She ended her own life because she thought it was the right thing to do! Whether you agree with her or not doesn't matter." Willow yelled. "You think you're the one that's hurting here? Yeah, sure, you're grieving." Willow's voice dropped. "But you didn't have to watch her jump to her death. You didn't get a visit from her spirit, telling you that everything is gonna be okay, when the rest of your body is screaming that she wasn't supposed to die!"

Willow's face was soaked with tears. Angel gawked at her. "Buffy's spirit visited you?" he was incredulous. "Yeah. She told me everything was going to be okay, yada, yada, yada. I still believe with all my heart that Buffy wasn't meant to die." she sat down, trying desperately to dry her tears.

"Let me go down to him!" she cried. The white-winged angel of the Lord shook his head. "We can't keep making exceptions for you. You went down to say good-bye to your friends, and that was more than we give most people." Frustration boiled up inside of her. "But he needs me! I can feel it. If I don't help him, he'll never be able to move on." she insisted. "He doesn't need to." the angel said. That confused her. "What?!"

A few hours later, during the wee dawn hours (as his old friends in Ireland would say), Angel heard a knock on his bedroom door. He didn't move to open it, or say anything to whoever was outside. "Angel?" Willow's voice. He didn't want to answer. He just wanted to sit in this very chair, and wait until the rays of sun coming in from his open window touch his flesh, burning him to ashes.

Willow twisted the knob, but the door was locked. "Arishney, vonduley, non." she mumbled, and the lock broke off, allowing her entrance. "Neat trick, huh?" she said, before she saw the rays of sunshine that were drawing closer and closer to Angel. "Oh, God!" she exclaimed, then quickly closed the window.

"What the hell were you trying to do, kill yourself?" she asked. Angel shrugged uncaringly. "Angel, just because Buffy is gone doesn't mean you should just rot away to nothing. You have a goal to work towards. You need to complete your redemption so you can be human." "So they told you about the prophecy." Angel deducted. Willow nodded. "Buffy was the only thing that kept me going. The only thing that made me think being human again would be worth something. I've always dreamed of waking up beside her every day, going out into the sunshine with her, being hers. But I guess it wasn't meant to be." he let a tear slide down his cheek.

Willow felt anger rise up in her. "Of course it was meant to be!!!" she gazed steadily at Angel. "No matter what happens, I'll always believe it was meant to be." she finished. Angel stood up, and Willow hugged him tightly. Angel started to cry again into her shoulder. "Thank you." he cried.

Willow pulled back, and took something out of her pocket. The claddagh ring. The symbol of Buffy and Angel's eternal love. "I think she would have wanted you to have it." she whispered. Angel silently took the ring. He looked at Willow, desperation in his eyes.

And Willow vowed there and then that she would find a way to bring Buffy back.

(Author's Note: All us Buffy fans were shocked when our favorite character died, and then those cheesy WB people had to put in that it was the series finale. Well, for those of you who don't know, Buffy's coming back. It will be on the UPN this season. And Sarah Michelle Gellar is still with the show, so Buffy will be resurrected. That's is basically all I know about next season, except for the fact that Giles will become a recurring character, and not a series regular since Anthony Stewart Head is moving to England. This story is my take on what might have happened after the cameras stopped rolling on the Buffy and Angel season finales. I have no idea if it's close to what will actually happen, even though I wish I did.)