Rating: PG-13 for language
Spoilers: Practically everything.
Disclaimer: We own nada. We don't want to. So there. Stick it up your nose. With bells on.
Synopsis: Buffy is on trial for all her crimes.
Feedback: We live for it!! Die for it! Hell, we'll take out a hit on Joss for it. We're not above begging, either.
Author's notes: This is yet, another End of Days story, except ti takes place right after it. Ok And don't ask us how Angel got to England okay? We don't know.For that matter, don't ask how Spike got there, either.
Distribution: Our site. , Ba_Fluff and if you, for some reason beyond us, want it, let us know where it goes. It's yours!
Dedication: Kasiya and Trixie. We hope that, if at least you don't enjoy it, you don't hate it.

And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay! Say nay! For shame!
To save thee from the blame
Of all my grief and grame
And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay! Say nay!

"Stand to order!" yelled the High Watcher, banging his gavel loudly upon the bench. The assembled watchers quieted down. The hush was almost palpable in the round chamber.

"I still can't believe that they actually have a court for this sort of thing," Buffy muttered to Giles out of the corner of her mouth.

"You're not supposed to talk once the High Watcher has called order," Giles said.

From where she stood, Buffy could see all her friends sitting in partitioned-off seats from the rest of the council. None of them, especially Cordelia, looked too happy to be there.

The High Watcher called out, "Buffy Summers! You are called before this court martial to account for crimes and actions not befitting a Slayer!"

"I don't even work for you guys anymore!" she said defiantly, then under her breath, "Don't you guys ever get a hint?"

Giles shushed her. "Buffy, please. Let's not exacerbate the situation any more than we absolutely have to. They already aren't exactly too happy with you."

"Why should I care about whether they're happy or not? Why is it always about someone else's happiness?"

The High Watcher looked sternly at her before continuing. "The Watcher's Council calls the prosecution, William Ashby-Wynn!"

William, a short, balding man in a pin-stripe suit and thick, horn-rimmed glasses, shuffled over to the cold, metal podium and glanced fussily at his notes before speaking. "Buffy. Buffy Anne Summers. Our so-called slayer," he sneered. "The supposed saviour of the world." He looked over the assembled council members. "Not very good, is she?" He pointed over to where Buffy was sitting with her hands cuffed. "Look at how pitiful she it, how absolutely pathetic she is. How are we supposed to depend upon this =person= to save the world?"

"If you haven't noticed, shit-for-brains, I just DID save the world!" Buffy called out to him.

William ignored her. "Furthermore, throughout her career as slayer, she has constantly destroyed public property, revealed her identity, never read the hand book, ruined lives, and above all had mercy where the undead are concerned!"

"That demon was NOT my fault!" said Buffy.

William paused. "Demon? What demon? I was talking about your vampire lover, Angel!"

Buffy sat back and looked to either side. "Um. Nothing. There was no demon. Never mind. I did not slay demons."

William looked even more confused and then pushed his glasses up his nose and peered at his papers again. "Yes. Well."

Buffy leaned towards Giles and said, "Do you guys have some sort of school in which you learn to say 'yes, well'?"

"Yes, well."

Buffy looked at him disgustedly. "You're no help, you know that?"

". and futhermore, she quit the council! A slayer has no right to quit the council!"

"You mean I wasn't allowed to do that?" she whispered to Giles.

Giles just looked at her. "As if you would have followed it had you known about it?"

Buffy thought a bit. "Nah. Still would have quit."

"That's what I thought."

".and never pays any ATTENTION!" William banged his file on the podium. "Miss Summers, will you at least have a LITTLE respect for the Council?"

"I'm having as little as I can," she replied smoothly.

William looked at her in disgust and stormed off the podium.

The High Watcher looked at the assembled watchers. "The Council recognizes the defense, Mr. Rupert Giles."

Buffy looked at Giles, her eyes filled with trust. "I know you can do it, Giles."

Giles, for his part, didn't feel as confident about defending Buffy as she thought, but he hid his discomfort and walked over to the podium. He rifled through his notes and looked up at the assembly. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the council. Miss Buffy Anne Summers has been an exemplary example of the triumph of the human spirit over unbearably overwhelming odds. She has let her feelings lead her where others would have used logic, and more often than not, her feelings have led her true. Where she was forced to stray from the path of the rules of this council, she has done so with good reason and when there was no other alternative available. If it would please this council, Miss Summers did no wrong, in the light of the incidents surrounding them. She is not, cannot be, guilty."

"Soppy fool," Spike muttered under his breath at the other end of the large room. Only Riley and Xander seemed to have heard him, and elbowed him in the kidneys. Spike glared at both of them and turned his attention back to the action. Giles was already heading back to where Buffy was sitting.

The High Watcher looked at the assembled watchers. "This council calls the prosecution again."

William stood up. "If it pleases your honour, I'd like to present the first crime, namely destruction of public property. Miss Summers, not content to destroy one school, went forth and did it twice! One is bad enough but to destroy two schools is unthinkable!! The slayer must remain circumspect in all her dealings!"

The High Watcher looked at Giles and said, "Mr Giles. Do you wish to respond to that?"

Giles stood up. "I wasn't her watcher when she destroyed the first school, but the second one was unavoidable." He looked resolutely at William. "If it makes any difference to you at all, Mr Ashby-Wynn, I was instrumental in the destruction of Sunnydale High, myself."

"Your motives and actions are not in question here, Mr. Giles! The slayer is the one person who must at all times be accountable for her action purely because of her great powers!"

Buffy sighed. This, it looked, would be a =long= court-martial.William and Giles parried back and forth. When William questioned Buffy's loyalty to the slayer profession, Giles countered by saying that Buffy never ever wavered in her quest to keep the world free of evil. William called upon witness after witness to give testimony to Buffy's crimes and mis-judgement, while Giles cross-examined them to try and refute their words. Riley and the initiative were called to the stand, as were Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Wesley, Anya and others.

Buffy herself was called to give testimony to her actions. Every little move that was not accorded by the watcher's rule books was called into question, every action that did not correspond with their ways.

Riley struggled with his feelings all the way throughout the proceedings. At every accusation, at every turn, he wanted to step forward and say that it was not so. That Buffy could not be guilty of all these crimes. "I wish I could say it was me," he thought. He closed his eyes. "Why can't I?"

Deep down he knew he was weak. He didn't think that he could be in Buffy's position and still remain sane.

Finally, at the end of a week's long proceedings, William stood before the council. "Ladies and gentlemen of this council, we would have liked to have called one witness into our midst, one who could have shown even more irrefutably how Miss Summers strayed from our ways. Unfortunately, Angelus the vampire, scourge of Europe, could not be located. I'm certain he would have shed a lot of light on this situation."

Wilt thou leave me thus?
That hath loved thee so long
In wealth and woe among;
And is thou heart so strong
As for to leave me thus?
Say nay! Say nay!

"I am here." There was a collective gasp from the council as from within the audience a tall, imposing figure strode through the council chamber doors in spite of the four heavily armed guards that stood there. He marched into the center of the round chamber and looked at the High Watcher.

Buffy whispered to Giles, "I thought he left after the fight!"

"Apparently not," Giles whispered back grimly. "I wonder what he's doing here."

"Buffy's innocent of everything. None of the crimes she's accused of were her idea."

William's eyebrow shot up at Angel's words. "Oh. And, pray tell, who's ideas were they?"

"Mine."

And wilt thou leave me thus?
That hath given thee my heart
Never for to depart
Neither for pain or smart
And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay! Say nay!

In stunning detail, Angel described to the Council how, wherever Buffy erred from the path, he was there, goading her on, guiding her actions. There was no thought of hers that was not induced by him. Buffy watched him, completely dumbstruck. Her mind was a whirlwind of emotions, anger at him for leaving her again after the battle, love for him that never died, anger at herself for letting him leave, for ever thinking she could love another while her soul still belonged with him. All these emotions and more buzzed through her head, and by this time, it was too late to stop him as she realised what he was doing.

"I was there when she planned to blow up Sunnydale High," Angel told the council.

"Angel, no!" Buffy cried out.

He ignored her. "To keep my life, I fooled her into thinking that I loved her. I lead her on."

"So you do not truly love this woman?" the High Watcher asked, leaning over his desk.

Angel turned around and looked at Buffy. Not a trace of emotion showed in his face. Not one glimmer of feeling did he show for Buffy. But Buffy knew his eyes. His eyes could never lie to her, and with that one look, he told her everything she ever wanted to hear, ever wanted to know.

"Angel, no," she whispered, a sob escaping her lips. She buried her face in her hands.

Angel closed his eyes, turned back to the High Watcher and looked him straight in the eye. "No. I have never loved the Slayer."

"So everything was your fault?" the High Watcher asked.

"Everything."

The High Watcher turned to Buffy and said, "Do you agree with his words?"

Buffy tried to speak, but no words would form. She barely had the strength to hold back her tears. The High Watcher looked at the council and proclaimed, "Judgement is passed. Angelus is deemed guilty by this council of letting a slayer stray from her duty to mankind, and of willing deceit. Your sentence shall be death! Midday tomorrow, you shall be exposed to the rays of the sun."

The council chamber erupted into a furor, with council members all babbling at once. Buffy tried to shout over the noise, to try and reach Angel and tell him she loved him still, but no one heard her. One of the council guards came by to remove her handcuffs, and Buffy tried running to him, but already the guards were leading him through a door, and the metal door closed with a final forbidding clang just as she reached it. "Why?" she whispered.

A council guard stepped up behind her. "You're free to go, Miss Summers." She stayed at the door until Giles guided her gently away.

Angel looked up as the dungeon door opened. He squinted his eyes at the brightness.

"Why did you do it?" Buffy asked, standing in the doorway, her hands crossed in front of her.

"Why do you think? I've seen what the council have done to previous errant slayers. You don't deserve that kind of death." I don't want you to die, he addend silently.

"I'm going to die anyway, Angel," Buffy said as if she had heard his unvoiced thought. "You can't keep on stalling it. Mortality doesn't work that way."

Angel just looked at her, saying nothing and everything he ever wanted to say to her. Buffy nodded and turned to leave. Angel stared at her as she left, his mind absorbing every little detail of her; the way she walked, the way she absently pushed her hair back behind her ear. "Goodbye, Buffy," he whispered to himself as the door closed.

"No I can't forget this evening
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess that's just the way the story goes
You always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows
Yes it shows
No I can't forget tomorrow
When I think of all my sorrow
When I had you there but then I let you go
And now it's only fair that I should let you know
What you should know."

Buffy leaned against the other side of the door, staring into nothingness. "I don't want to say goodbye."

" I can't live
If living is without you
I can't live
I can't give anymore
I can't live
If living is without you
I can't give
I can't give anymore.."

Angel closed his eyes tight to fight back the tears he wouldn't ever let Buffy see. "Goodbye."

"Stand to attention!" yelled the High Watcher. "Guards! Bring in the perpetrator." Three guards flanked Angel as they led him into the main hall. The floor had been modified with a large metal stake erected in the center. As Angel passed Buffy he stopped. "Don't do it, Angel," she implored. "Their accusations are truth."

".You always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows."

He looked at her face, absorbing every detail. "I love you," he whispered simply. He turned towards the center and continued his march toward the stake. Buffy stood and stared at his retreating back, a side of him she'd seen once too often.

".Oh yes it shows.."

The guards tied Angel to the stake and stepped back; the heat from the conflagration would be intense. Slowly, the clock ticked off the seconds to midday. Everywhere within the council chamber was silence. No one dared speak. Buffy felt her heart beating hard in her ears. Angel looked so. peaceful there. All the time he was tied there, he looked at Buffy. His eyes never left her face once. Not even when the great domed roof opened did his eyes leave hers.

"I can't live."

A giant shaft of sunlight shot through the ceiling, drenching the vampire in its pure, cheery, deadly brilliance. Angel let out at howl of pure anguish, a feral scream of pure pain.

".if living is without you."

Buffy made up her mind. Without thought she leapt free of the crowd, her athletic body easily clearing the barriers. Vaguely, she heard Giles behind her shout, "Buffy! No!" but she paid him no heed. The only voice she heard now was the voice telling her that her life would be incomplete without Angel. She ran towards the only man she ever loved, the only man she ever would love, and found sweet release in his embrace. "I love you," was all she could manage as the flames licked at her, burning away her ties to this existence.

"You spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For the break that will make it okay
There's always some reason
To feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day.

.In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room
And the endless nights that you fear."

Memories of her and Angel flashed their way through her memory. Their love. Every waking and sleeping moment they had together. Every second they ever shared.

".in the arms of the angel
May you find
Some comfort here."

=wince= (We can see the flames from here.)

=Draws a design in the dirt with their toes= We're sorry about not giving a warning at the beginning, but..Flames are, if not welcomed, at least not entirely undeserved. And I know Kasiya would probably really give up on us EVER writing fluff again. We promise the next one will be fluffier. (Which, come to think about it, doesn't really amount to much. Probably ANYTHING would be fluffier than this!!) Just for you, Kasiya, we'll do a nice fluff next time, 'k?

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