Title: Bequeathal

Author: Briar o0briar0o@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: Whedon's the man who done thunk it up.

Rated: G

Distribution:list archives

Summary: "The Gift" spoiler, Buffy

Notes: Smashing Pumpkins' /Tonight, tonight/ is the

perfect song.

***

Bequeathal

I am taking away the offending bonds; her wrists are

chaffed by manacles of industrial strength rope

anchored by black incantations. I note briefly how

criss-cross slashes mark her belly .pumpkinbelly. ,

see material soaked in crimson.

There is rumbling, a thunder begins and it is my

heart. It must be. The quiver starts- Not yet. We have

to get down and then I can hug her, fall at her feet

and cry. Dawn lives.

Crumpling we'll save for later. I realize it's not my

soul-quake. Whatever's under us feels like it's going

to give, to fall apart real soon and the foundations

holding us up in the works of falling away taking

everything from beneath our feet.

It's then I notice hers. Bare. They bleed.

"Buffy, it hurts."

"I got it. You're gonna be okay."

All that's left to do now is to get off this

godforsaken platform .eh.NOW

Go.

"GO!"

Run, run.

We be sisters alive.

She turns.

"Buffy, it's started."

Her voice is resolute.

"I'm sorry."

I do not know if the others are still alive.

"It doesn't matter."

She starts. I grab her tightly by the shoulders. Warm

and tense beneath willful fingers.

"What are you doing?"

Sister, can't you see we've won. Her eyes are

luminous, almost wet. Windows shuttering, want to

throw them open wide and fly us both.

I can taste the safety, c'mon share the dream.

---

Everything. Falls

into

place.

It all makes sense.

Vibration inside out. Space shivers thickly.

Convulsing-- and it rips into the very fiber of my

being. Feels like tearing, sucking, rending innards

into spindles of pure *life*. Ribbons of it, pouring,

melding, crashing into- of-

I will cleave into a thousand shards. Dawn. So pure.

Freely- unlocking. I have never felt more alive-

***

time is never time at all

you can never ever leave without leaving

a piece of youth

and our lives are forever changed

we will never be the same

the more you change the less you feel

believe, believe in me, believe, believe

that life can change, that you're not stuck in vain

we're not the same, we're different tonight

so bright

and you know you're never sure

but you're sure you could be right

if you held yourself up to the light

and the embers never fade in your city by the lake

the place where you were born

believe in me,

believe

in the resolute urgency of now

we'll crucify the insincere

we'll make things right

the impossible is possible

believe in me as I believe in you...

=====

nothing gold can stay.