Epilogue: Iridescent

Thirty minutes after the restoration of Los Angles

Location: The Hyperion Location

Angel gently lowered Eve's motionless form by the side of the still injured Lindsay. Despite the fearsome gash in the side of his leg he rolled off of the table that he was lying down on and crawled over to her body. With a truly pitiful wail he gently touched her cheek with a trembling hand. "How?" he asked softly, his tears raining down onto her lifeless face. Angel had already decided what he was going to say. He didn't want to spend the next thirty or forty years looking over his shoulder for a vengeful Texan. He had considered just killing him and being done with it but it didn't really seem like it was all that fair.

"The Partners wanted to make an example out of those that defied them," he said gravely, "After they took Giles' arm they killed her. It was reasonably quick. For what it's worth, I really am sorry."

"After they let her go, I actually thought that we'd get to ride off into the sunset together," he said thickly, "How pathetic is that?"

"She knew the stakes," Angel said simply, "And she knew 'em better than anyone. Despite all that, she still helped. That's got to mean something."

~o~O~o~

One hour after the restoration of Los Angles

Although the others had offered to help, Kennedy had refused to let anyone else carry Willow. The red haired witch was exhausted beyond all measuring but she wouldn't allow herself to sleep yet. "Could you put me down next to him?" she asked her Slayer girlfriend. With a gentleness that went against her violent abilities, she lowered Willow next to Xander's body. As soon as the battle had ended, Faith had immediately driven back to Virtus and brought back him, Wesley and Dawn. Xander's body had been laid down in the lobby with his arms folded over his chest. At Willow's side was Dawn, having refused to have quit her vigil over him and, next to her, Buffy.

"It's not fair," Willow said quietly, "This is already happened, we just got him back… It's not supposed to…" Her body started to shake with sobs with sobs but she made an effort to regain control of herself. "Was he in a lot of pain?" Dawn shook her head slightly.

"He was very peaceful at the end," she said, brushing aside a lock of her hair that had been stuck to her wet, tear stained cheek. "At that stage I doubt that he would have felt much. He… He actually seemed happy."

"Was it really Jesse?" the paralysed witch asked.

"I don't think so," Dawn replied, "I never met Jesse but… I don't think that there was anything left of your friend in the man I saw. He was just another monster."

"How's your leg?" Buffy asked her little sister.

"Faith set it," she replied, "I'll get it looked at later. Something tells me the hospitals are going to be overworked in the next few days."

Keeping a respectful distance from the grieving girls stood Angel, Gunn, Lorne, Wesley and Fred.

"What do we do now?" Fred asked, her cuts having been cleaned and dressed.

"We keep working," Angel answered.

"No," she replied, once again on the verge of tearing up, "I don't think that I can come back from this… This… This is just too much. Why do we have to keep going?"

"Because we have to," Gunn said, his eyes also wet, "There's so much more coming for us."

"The city went to Hell and back," Lorne continued, "There's no hiding the magical anymore. Everybody in the city saw it. Soon everyone else out there will know as well."

"It's a brand new world," Wesley finished.

"So what do we do?" Fred asked.

"Keep going," Angel answered, "This is just the beginning of something new. The end is where we start from."

~o~O~o~

Three hours after the restoration of Los Angles

Kennedy gently stroked Willow's hair as she laid on one of the Hyperion's many beds. "Come on, honey," she crooned, "You should try to sleep."

"I can't Willow exclaimed wearily, "I'm too tired to sleep."

"Can I have talk to her for a minute?" Kennedy turned to see Faith standing in the doorway. Kennedy was about refuse her, saying that Willow needed rest but then she realised that Faith would have already known that. She wouldn't have come if it was not important.

"One minute," she relented before walking past Faith and out into the hall.

"How are you holding up?" Faith asked, sitting beside the bed.

"I'll live," Willow said in a brittle little voice. Unable to move from the waist down, dark circles under her eyes that looked more like bruises and wild, unkempt hair: Willow looked very small.

"He asked me to tell you something," Faith said suddenly, not needing to say who "he" was. Willow looked at her with a spark of interest in her eyes. "Just before we went into the club he asked me to tell you that he didn't mean what happened at the wedding, he was just angry that day. I figured that you'd know what he meant."

"He asked you to tell me that?" Willow asked curiously, "You?"

"We had some time to talk over the past day," she replied, shrugging, "I guess you could say that we buried the hatchet."

"You were with him?"

"I fought with him," she clarified, "In the end I like to think that we were allies." She rose to her feet. "You should really try to get some sleep," she said in a surprisingly gentle voice, "I'll leave you to it."

~o~O~o~

Buffy examined Giles' left side. Despite the fact that he had lost his arm at the elbow there was no sign of injury (other than the fact that his arm was no longer there), there was no blood or bruising of any kind, just smooth skin over the stump. "It still hasn't sunk in yet," said the Watcher without any trace of irony, "I keep expecting to look down and see it but then I actually do look down and…" He shrugged. "… well you get the idea."

"I'm sorry," Buffy said uselessly.

"It's not your fault," he replied kindly, stroking her cheek with his remaining hand, "It had to be done."

"Kennedy said that she was going to arrange for transport back home over the next few weeks," she said, "But I don't know what we're going to do next."

"Yes you do," he replied instantly. She looked at him in confusion.

"What?" she asked, "What do I do?"

"Once we all get back, you take Spike and you go to Paris," he said, completely serious, "If not Paris then Venice, Sydney or Tokyo. Just go… Go and get out of here. We can hold the fort and manage the fallout from this but I want you as far away from all of this as possible. You've earned it."

"But I can't just leave you all like this," she protested. Despite everything that had happened that day (up to and including the loss of his left arm) Rupert Giles burst into hysterical laughter.

"Oh my beautiful idiot," he said fondly, "For seven years you were the world's best and often only line of defence against everything that wanted to hurt it. You gave up your academic future, you sacrificed your health, your romantic interaction, and you gave up any chance of a normal life. Did you ever stop to think that that wasn't fair and that maybe, just maybe, the world agreed? There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of girls ready to shoulder that burden. We have over three hundred in Edinburgh already. You don't have to sacrifice it all anymore because such devotion simply isn't necessary. So get out and live the life that I have dreamt of you having. There's so much more than just… this."

~o~O~o~

Eight days after the restoration of Los Angles

Location: Ferris Fields

A night time funeral was a rather strange occurrence but for certain guests to not burst into flame at the burial it was the only way for everyone to pay their last respects to Alexander Lavelle Harris. The late hour also prevented a crowd from forming as most of the people in attendance were now celebrities. So at seven pm on the seventh of January, 2005 at Ferris Fields cemetery, the combined surviving members of the Scoobies and the Fang Gang gathered around the open grave that was to be Xander's final place of rest. Wesley, Gunn, Buffy, Angel, Spike and Faith gently lowered his coffin into the freshly dug hole.

Dawn (sitting in a wheelchair with a cast on her broken leg and wearing a brown leather jacket that was several sizes too big for her) had managed to maintain her composure throughout the entire service and for the ride to the cemetery but as soon as they started to fill the hole with dirt she choked back a sudden sob. The second their hands touched the shovels she realised that this was it and that Xander was never going to come back to her. She was never going to see him again.

Her body started the tremble and she broke down, silently crying. Fred reached over and took the younger girl's hand in hers. She didn't waste anyone's time with "It will be okay" or other similarly useless platitudes. She simply said, "You can stay with us for as long as you need." Dawn leant to the side and rested her head on the older girl's shoulder.

Fred, so insistent that she knew why Xander had smiled before dying, had made arrangements for inscription on his grave. Dawn had said nothing when she had seen it. She'd already known what it was going to say.

Alexander Harris

Friend, Comrade and Champion

1981 – 2004

He found her

And, in possibly a literal sense, he had. Resting at his side, as she would for all eternity, was the grave of Harmony Kendall.

~o~O~o~

Ten days after the restoration of Los Angeles

"So," said Gunn to assembled group, "It took some digging but I found the will." He held up a large yellow envelope for all to see.

"I'm surprised he had a will," said Willow, now permanently bound to a wheelchair. Aside from her disability, she had made a full mental and physical recovery from her ordeal.

"Not really," Gunn replied soberly, "It was dated the day before the attack." They were silent as they absorbed that new piece of information. Even though Xander had mentioned future plans it was clear to all that he had never been confident about his odds of survival. "Anyway," Gunn continued, "Even though he had spent a good chunk of his assets on Fred and Wesley's new house and on insuring it, he worked for Wolfram and Hart and his biggest personal expenses were bullets which counted as work expenses. As such, there are still a few things that need to be settled."

"What did he have to say?" Buffy asked.

"Not a lot," Gunn answered, opening the envelope and pulling out a disk, "To be honest, it's a little odd. His only instruction was to play this DVD." He inserted the disk into a DVD player and switched on the television. Beaming back at them was the smiling face of Xander Harris.

"Hey, guys!" he said brightly, "If you're seeing this I suppose it means I'm… Well, you know. Or you could have just been rummaging through my stuff and decided to put this on. If that's the case… dick move. However, that seems a little unlikely so I'm going to go with the first option. I hope it was impressive, you know, not getting hit by a car because I didn't look both ways. Well, I suppose that there are worse ways to go, depends on the car, really. I'm rambling, I should probably try to get on track and talk about what happens to my stuff. Firstly, Dawn gets the lot. Dawn, if everything went to plan, you and Concorde went to Venice just before everything hit the fan here. Now I know that you're probably angry at me for lying to you and treating you like a child, maybe venting and lashing out at everything, so typical. Just knock it off for a moment though." He looked directly into the camera. "Dawnie," he said gently, "I love you. I know that it was not the way that you wanted but it is all I had to offer and, before you say anything, yes I always knew. I've always known how you felt. I don't know why you had such lousy taste in men but that's another subject for another day. I know it's not the way you wanted but you are the most important person in my life and I will do anything to keep you safe even having you hate me. I know that you're probably angry with me and that it might take a long time to forgive me but I hope that you can try to understand. I just can't lose any more people that I love.

"Wesley and Fred," he continued, "You have a little one on the way and I'm just sorry that I'll never get to see him… or her I suppose. I know that you're both a little nervous but don't be. I meant what I said, you guys already are the best parents in the world and now you get to do it with an actual kid as opposed to the man child that is me. You're gonna do great.

"And finally, Angel, Lorne, Gunn… oh what the hell, even you, Spike… Just thanks for letting me be part of the team. It made me feel… special. Like I was someone of value. Oh and Spike," Xander added as an afterthought, "You'd better treat Buffy right or your ass is haunted. I will haunt you for like… forever. She deserves a good man – which I am not saying that you are, by the way. One day she'll wake up and realise that she's out of your league and dump your ass. Just, til then, watch out for her." Spike chuckled briefly. ("What?" Buffy asked to which he replied, "Inside joke, I'll explain later.")

"I guess that's it and um… I hope I did well." Xander leant forward and hit some button and the screen went black. Buffy wrapped her arms around her younger sister who was now crying. Goodbye, Buffy said silently.

~o~O~o~

Seven months after the restoration of Los Angeles

Dawn, Angel, Gunn and Lorne sat in the waiting room of the hospital, either pacing or twiddling their thumbs. None of them really felt like talking. Finally after hours of awkward silence, Wesley burst into the room with a happy, if somewhat, dazed expression on his face. "It's a girl," he exclaimed excitedly, "Come and see." Revitalised by the news, they all followed him down the hall and into the room where they could see Fred (looking exhausted yet proud) gently rocking her new daughter back and forth.

"Do I get to hold the little munchkin?" Lorne asked, approaching the new parent with his arms out.

"Godmother gets to hold her first," said Dawn, quickly sliding in front of the green skinned lounge singer.

"Gently, gently," said Fred, passing her daughter into the arms of her godmother.

"Watch her head," said Wesley with the kind of concern that only a new parent can have.

"Wes," Dawn said, amusement in her voice, "Chill." She peered into the face of the newborn who was looking up at her curiously. Dawn had never been a strong believer in the whole love at first sight thing but as she held the baby in her arms she could feel her heart melting. She was going to be the best godmother that she could possibly be for this little one. "What's her name?" she asked. Wesley and Fred had refused to tell them the name they had picked until the baby was born.

The parents exchanged a look and smiled. "We'd thought about the name for a while," said Wesley, "But, in the end, there was really only one that felt right."

"Dawn," said Fred, smiling warmly, "We want you to meet, Alex."

Dawn was speechless for several moments, almost overwhelmed by this wave of emotion. "Wow," she said finally, "That's…" She swallowed. "That's a good name." She looked back down at the baby. "Hello, Alex," she said softly, "My name is Dawn and it is very nice to meet you." The little baby gurgled happily.

Angel leant towards Wesley. "It's a good name and all," he said, "But I don't suppose you ever considered…?"

"Not really," said Fred and Wesley in unison."

"Okay, okay, just checking."

~o~O~o~

Sixteen months after the restoration of Los Angeles

Buffy made it to Paris. After making stops in Venice, Sydney and Tokyo. She's finally done what no Slayer in the history of the world had ever thought possible:

She got out.

Well, mostly. She would still come back to the base (and had plans to continue doing so) every month or so and teach for a couple of days and Giles had a number to call her should anything monumentally world threatening arise. But aside from that, she was out and she was free.

More than that, she was thriving. Once the next semester began she was going to return to college and start a law degree. She was still going to fight for the oppressed and downtrodden only this time she was going to fight in a courtroom as opposed to a graveyard.

She didn't do this alone, however. Of course Spike was at her side for every step of her journey, like he was always supposed to. And, unbeknownst to her, he always kept an ear to the ground for rumour about Mohra Demons and where they might be hiding.

~o~O~o~

Nineteen months after the restoration of Los Angeles

Location: Ferris Fields

Dawn sat in front of the grave with her legs crossed. "Hey, Xander," she said, "Sorry I haven't been here in a while, I've just been so busy with school. Um… uh… Oh, Alex started walking last week. It's a little earlier than expected but, between you and me, I reckon that she's taking more from her mother than her dad, Her grip can be so strong at times that I think that she could crush rocks if she wanted to." She smiled briefly at the thought before sighing. "Also…" She exhaled. "…Connor and I broke up yesterday… It was amicable… mostly. Brown University offered him a scholarship which meant… Well, he had to move to the other side of the country. He – He asked me to come with him actually. I couldn't… I just couldn't. This is my home. I think the reason that things had gone so well with us before was that at first it was all so new. Everything was a first; first boyfriend, first time sex, first… well, lots of firsts. And then there was a war and it was like all we had was each other. You know, super sexy and passionate and all that. But then, once it got back to normal, it was just… there. I suppose it was coming for a while now. It still doesn't feel great though.

"What else…? Oh, I ended my psych degree last month. The CIA is starting up a paranormal division and, because I was at Ground Zero when everything went down here and because I'm apparently an "expert" they've offered me a job as a consultant. Sounds pretty exciting actually. Buffy's not exactly a fan but I'm just happy to be able to do some good. "Dawn Summers, paranormal consultant for the Central Intelligence Agency" has a hell of a ring to it if I do say so myself."

~o~O~o~

Three years and eight months after the restoration of Los Angels

Location: Russia

It had taken three weeks of searching through the snowy Russian wilderness but finally Spike, accompanied by Gunn, Fred (Wesley staying home to look after Alex who was now strong enough to accidently walk through a wall when she stumbled) and Tobias (now insisting that he was Fred's butler) had finally tracked down the Mohra demon that had been praying on the citizens of Minusinsk.

After a particularly intense fight with the hero killer that Tobias ended with ripping out the demon's spine and using it to shatter its centre eye, Spike had followed in the footsteps of Harmony Kendall and Shanshued himself.

~o~O~o~

Four years and seven months after the restoration of Los Angeles

Location: Ferris Fields

Dawn had become leaner and more muscular over the years, with the body of a professional dancer or an Olympian athlete. Her hair had also been dyed jet black and cut short so that it barely passed by the bottom of her ears. Hidden by her clothes, an image of an old fashioned key was tattooed on her left shoulder blade and on the right was an eye patch. If she had her way Buffy was never going to find out about the tattoos. Also hidden by her clothes was a number of cuts and scars, some old and some new, souvenirs from work. There was also a hardening around her eyes that had not been there when she was younger. The only noticeable remnant of the younger Dawn was that she was still wearing an old battered brown leather jacket that was still too big for her small frame. The jacket seemed to have seen as much action as its wearer.

"Hey, Xander," Dawn said gently, "I know, I know, it's been way too long, almost a year now. I just haven't been in town all that much." She sighed sadly. "My partner at work, Marcus… He died last week. We were working out in Iraq posing as UN peacekeepers, wanting to see if one of the local warlords was trying to make a deal with a demon, apparently the "sanctity" of their religion stops being important the very second a demon can offer a better deal. He was trading young virgin girls for spells of destruction. They discovered who we were working for and… he didn't make it. The mission was considered a success though as we got the intel. "Acceptable loss" was how they described it. I've been given a three week furlough to get everything together." She was silent for a while, just sitting in front of the grave stone.

"Oh," she said suddenly, "I'm staying with Fred and Wes while I'm in town. You should see them. They're just… They really have it together and Alex!" She laughed, a rare display of positive emotion. "God she's just adorable, running around all the time now, I don't know how they keep up with her, Lord knows I can't. They've uh, still got that Tobias guy with them. I think that he thinks that he's their butler or something. It's actually kind of sweet just how devoted to them he is and you should see him when he's looking after Alex. She'll make him sit down for a tea party and pour him invisible tea and it's just so cute 'cause he'll be sitting there with a serious expression on his face while drinking the imaginary tea.

"What else was I going to tell you? What else? Ooh, I remember! Spike pulled a Harmony and he's human now and the very second he got back he proposed to Buffy. She said yes and they got married earlier this year. Angel got an invite but of course he didn't show, haven't actually seen him in almost two years, he's been keeping a really low profile. Still you should have been there, she looked so… content. Spike is now going by William, that's gonna take some getting used to, I reckon.

"It's funny really, I spent years complaining about being the "normal" one and now normal is happening to everyone else while I'm just… I just really, really wish you were around. You always made me feel like it wasn't so bad. You made me feel special. I guess that I'm trying to say that I miss having my best friend around."

~o~O~o~

Seven years and four months after the restoration of Los Angeles

Location: New York City

It had been a long time since they had all been together but given that Willow was getting married they all found themselves in New York City on a brisk Autumn morning in 2011. Angel hadn't planned on making an appearance, becoming ever more solitary but on the day the red haired witch had personally teleported to Los Angeles (wheelchair and all) and personally dragged him all the way to the function centre. He didn't protest all that much, secretly glad that she wanted him there so badly.

So at ten o'clock in the morning, with all of their friends and family in attendance, Willow and Kennedy finally got married.

Of course there was dancing at Willow's insistence. Even if she could not join in she still was happy to watch. Off to one side she could see Dawn and Tobias play-dancing with Alex. It was so nice to see her genuinely smiling for once. The younger girl had become noticeably more grim over the past few years. "Come on, lover girl," she heard before being hoisted out of her chair and spun around.

"Kennedy," she laughed, "What are you doing?"

"Dancing," her wife replied cheekily.

"I don't know if you've noticed but I can't do that," Willow deadpanned.

"Sure you can," Kennedy insisted, "You way nothing and I have super strength, we can make this work." So Kennedy held Willow carefully and together they spun around on the dance floor. Buffy laughed when she saw the pair, her hand resting on the barely noticeable bulge in her stomach. She wasn't going to tell anyone until a week after the wedding, after all she didn't want to steal her best friend's moment.

"Hey." She looked to her side and saw Angel leaning against the wall.

"Hi," she said, "Long time no see."

"My fault," he replied, "Been swamped with work but Willow can awfully persuasive if she wants something badly enough."

"I thought she mentioned something about dragging you here," she said, grinning.

"How've you been?" he asked.

"Really good," she replied.

"I heard," he said, "Running for office next year sounds… just, wow."

"I didn't know you knew that."

"I keep informed of all the latest gossip, speaking of, I believe congratulations are in order." Her jaw dropped.

"How on Earth did you know that?" she asked, "I haven't even told William."

"Uh, hello, vampire," he deadpanned, "I can hear the second heartbeat. So anyway, congratulations."

"Thanks," she said sincerely, "I didn't want to tell anyone until after the wedding, Let them have their moment."

~o~O~o~

Time: Unknown

Location: Unknown

The boy looked at the girl, her blonde hair iridescent in the shining, otherworldly light. "I love you," he whispered adoringly.

"I love you," she echoed before wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a kiss. When he finally pulled away he had an unreadable expression on his face. "What?" she asked him. He smiled gently, pulling a stray strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I'm just so glad that I know you," he answered, "I love you, Harmony."

The End

~o~O~o~

Wow, we finally made it, I wasn't entirely sure that we'd make it this far. A huge thank you to everyone that took the time to read and review. I am going to miss reading your encouraging comments.

As for what's next, you already know about the Tangled/Froze crossover "Duty and Honour" which will have a second chapter uploaded sometime soon (and yes, KLR, I do plan on throwing in one or two cheeky Once Upon a Time references so be sure to check it out and review). I'll also be updating "Chase" on Wattpad so check that out. If I get enough interest I may even try publishing it on Amazon's Kindle store.

Also, there is a third project that I've decided to do. It is another Buffy story focusing on Dawn. While writing this epilogue I fell in love with the idea of "Dawn Summers: Secret Agent" so keep a look out for that (with a better title obviously). It will act as a sort of sequel to this but you won't have to have read this one to understand it. It also probably won't be as long as this story was. Let me know what you think of that idea.

So, once again, thank you so much to all of you, especially:

ObsessedwReading

Miconis

anon

Starway Man (Thanks especially for your consistent and mainly positive reviews)

Celgress

TheMaster444

KLR (I love just how much you liked the Harmony story and how passionate some of your reviews got. I hope you continue reading some of my other works)

EvE79

xavierp

Guest

mfmxxx

Wonderbee31

DragonyPhoenix

Son of Whitebread

Difdi

Kelly

Zloch (I really enjoyed your in depth reviews, they were very helpful when writing my original stuff so thanks a lot)

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Jeremy Shane

Seeking Shadows

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Richard Oliver

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apeljohn

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~o~O~o~

Thank you so very, very much. You all made this a real pleasure to write. Please review and I will see you next time