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Tales from the Wish Dimension
When It All Comes Crashing Down: The Aftermath
by Matthew Stephenson
Disclaimer: Ok, so I don't own any of the characters in this story. Buffy
Summers, Xander Harris, Angel, Willow Rosenberg, Oz, Larry, Giles, Anyanka,
the Master and Sunnydale all belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and the
WB. This short story chronicles what happens directly after the events of
"The Wish" in the Wish dimension. Feedback, positive or negative, can be
sent by e-mail to[email protected].
Buffy Summers fell to the floor, her neck broken, a girl lost to the world
that she had saved so many times. Was it fate that caused her to die at the
hands of the Master? Did the Prophecy rule her destiny? She would never
know. She would never know that the vampire who had so recently died, so
simply called Angel, would have been her greatest solace. She would never
know that Xander Harris, who met death by her own hand mere minutes before,
would have been one of her best friends. Nor could she ever know how close
she and the pile of ashes once known as Willow Rosenberg might have been.
But then you might say that Buffy Summers would have known none of this had
she lived anyhow, for this Buffy Summers had never called Sunnydale home. A
difference not lacking in importance, though it seemed innocent enough to
Cordelia Chase. Ironic that she, too, had met death in this world of
shattered dreams and fruitless hopes that she had helped create. A simple
wish, a simple fate.
The Master cared nothing for what-ifs, and speculation. He cared only that
his victory over the Slayer was total. Humanity was his for the enslaving,
eating or whatever he pleased and nobody could stand in his way of that. He
had proved it to himself, all of his minions, and the world. They would
have no choice but to recognize his domination now. He grinned gleefully,
but then turned somber at the thought of his two most trusted deputies,
Xander and Willow, turned to ashes by the Slayer and her White Hat
companions.
"Kill them! Kill them both! " The Master ordered. He then pondered a
moment and reversed his orders, "Wait! Leave me the one who killed Willow!"
"I want the pleasure for myself!"
Oz looked warily at Larry. The two of them had been preparing to make a
hasty retreat that was becoming hastier by the moment. Hey, uh, Larry.
Oz said, between heavy breaths while running away from a stream of vampires.
"I think now would be a good time to outrun this horde of vampires behind
us."
Larry was in no mood for Oz's typical sarcasm. Too bad we couldn't pack
some extra stakes.
Yeah, two teenagers against an army of vampires. I'd say we could've
licked them in under five decades. Face it, without the Slayer and that
vampire, we're just happy meals for the Master. Oz still couldn?t believe
there had been a vampire on their side, and they had never known it. It's
too bad he died, Oz thought. We could have used him, especially now.
The two of them turned a corner. It seemed as though they had eluded the
vampire cadre, but neither of them stopped running at their breakneck pace.
"We need to find some place to hole up for a while," Larry said.
"I second that," replied Oz, who was very out of breath. "We need to lick
our wounds a bit. It's going to be quite a while before we'll be up to
tackling the Master again."
"And considering the fact we just ran from him like scared rabbits, I don't
think he's going to see us as much of a threat."
"True." Oz said. "I wonder how Giles is faring right now?"
Anyanka?s blood curdling scream could have woken the dead. Her power center,
her necklace, was about to be destroyed by this meddling dolt. In horror,
she watched as the one thing which gave her power was crushed to shards.
Her scream continued until it became almost deafening. The amulet was gone,
her life was over. As she looked on in agony, she vanished.
An astonished Giles looked up from the smashed amulet to see Anyanka gone.
The world had not changed, Giles remained in his apartment and everything
around him was the same. Right down to the last detail. This couldn't be
the changed world. He felt an immense sense of grief, but he suppressed it,
as usual. Giles had seen and experienced too much to be born by any one
man. He thought perhaps the Slayer had killed the Master, but with her
reckless tactics, he doubted it. He still had a great deal of hope invested
in Oz and Larry, though. With Nancy and all the others gone, he knew they
were Sunnydale's, and quite possibly the world's, last hope. Giles thought
he should go back to the library, but he wasn't sure why. He needed some
time to build back his confidence. It was getting so everything failed for
Rupert Giles, and he felt as though everything he touched would wither and
die. He sometimes feared that he would live to see the world become
consumed by vampires because he failed to stop them in Sunnydale. His
dreams were all nightmares now, filled with horrible images of those he
trusted, those he loved, inhabited by demons or in a hastily-dug grave
somewhere. Despite it all, he never lost his resolve. No matter how long
it took, one day Sunnydale would be free. And Rupert Giles would fight
until the day that happened.
As Oz and Larry walked through the back streets of Sunnydale, they were each
anxious to avoid being killed. Neither were properly armed and both feared
a vampire attack at any moment. Daytime was far away, and they would have
to face Giles then, who would not be happy with the news they brought.
?You want to head over to Giles? apartment, tell him the semi-bad news??
Larry asked.
"Maybe we should head back to the library," Oz said. "I really don't feel
like telling Giles everything tonight and I don't think we're going to be
safe for a while. I'd feel better in a place with lots of weapons and
crosses."
"Mm. Ok." Larry didn't really agree, but he kept his mouth shut.
Oz couldn't help but reflect on what had happened. "We really should have
had a better exit strategy than run away very quickly". Oz complained.
"Hey, if you want to act all defeatist, then fine," Larry responded.
"But we accomplished some major slayage. Xander and Willow were the Master's
right hand. With them gone, it'll take a while for him to get back on his
feet."
"Yeah. But considering that for every vampire we kill, countless humans die
in his factory, the odds favor them." For some reason, Oz did not take
heart from the fact that he had personally killed Willow Rosenberg. He was
anxious to change the subject.
Larry really didn?t want to talk about the factory and if the truth were
known, he was a bit depressed himself. They continued their walk to the
library in silence. Larry really hadn?t been into this whole "Hey-let"
s-kill-some-vampires-and-save-Sunnydale? attitude that a lot of his
classmates had had at the beginning, right after the Harvest. However much
he'd try to convince himself otherwise, however much he wanted to believe he
was doing this out of sheer nobility, he had to admit to himself, and
sometimes he did, that he had only joined the S.S.S. (the Save Sunnydale
Society, Giles had coined the name himself) because of Oz. For some
reason, ever since he had seen him, he?d had this ?thing? for Oz. He couldn't
admit it to anyone else, and he certainly would never tell Oz such a
thing, as the guy was obviously not interested, but he just couldn?t shake
the feeling. And he was still alive, still fighting, and all those who had
joined looking for The Joy of Killing Vampires were dead. If that wasn't
irony, what was?
Oz sometimes wished he?d never joined Giles and his group. With all the
pain and suffering that he had endured thanks to the Master?s reign of
terror, he almost wished he had just given in or moved to another town or
something, anything so that he wouldn't have to fight vampires. But they
would come eventually, no matter where he went, so he had to stop them here.
And the thought of being a vampire didn?t exactly fill him with glee. He
had felt drawn to this task, not so much because he felt it was the right
thing to do, but because he felt it was the only thing to do. So he
supposed that this was the life he was destined to live.
Giles was in the library, nervously pacing, as Oz and Larry entered.
"W-what are you two doing here at this hour?" Giles asked, half not wanting
an answer.
"We kinda tagged along with that Slayer," Larry said.
"You went with her to face the Master?" Giles asked. They both nodded
assent. "What happened?"
"What always happens with the Master?" Oz asked. "He beat the crap out of
us and we ran."
"And the Slayer?"
"Dead." Larry threw in. "She faced him head on and he broke her neck. One
of the shortest fights I ever saw."
Giles deadpanned. Larry often thought that between Giles and Oz the two of
them had the range of expression of a brick wall. "Oh, dear. I-I'm going
to have a terrible time explaining it to that Watcher in Cleveland."
"We've got bigger problems than the Watcher in Cleveland," Oz interjected.
"The Master's factory is operational and running. He's killing people
enmasse, and draining them of their blood systematically. He says it's the
wave of the future?."
"So we're assuming this is kind of a long range thing," Larry said. "Buffy
took out a few vampires before she went, though, including Xander Harris,
and Oz here," he said elbowing Oz in the ribs, "took out Willow Rosenberg
himself."?
"Mm. Yeah. I did." Oz still had that weird feeling about killing her,
which was very strange considering he had been killing vampires for so long
now that it became almost second nature to him. There was just something
different about her.
"He's just being modest," Larry told Giles, unaware of why Oz was so shy on
the matter.
"Yes, well, at least some good came out of tonight." Giles said.
"I take it that means no go on Anyanka," Oz tried.
"I summoned her and, uh, she tried to kill me." There was a time when Giles
would have thought a murder attempt was unusual, but in Sunnydale it
happened all the time. "I managed to destroy her power center, by smashing
her a-amulet. And she, uh, vanished into thin air."
"But here we are and the world's still the same as it was and there's no
Slayer," Larry said, with his gift for stating the obvious. "I told you it
wasn't all because of that ditzy girl."
Giles gave him a look. "Yes, well, I suppose not." Giles paused and was
extremely thoughtful. "But I can't help but think that a better world is
out there somewhere. Where the Master never rose. Or where there was a
Slayer to fight him."
"Yeah, well, that's all great for them, but we're stuck here, Giles, and we
need to concentrate on the task at hand." Larry brought Giles back from his
speculative mood.
"Yes, you're quite right. We'll need to figure out what the Master will do
without his two most... trusted lieutenants. This may offer us a golden
opportunity for attack. Now, w-what we'll have to do is..." As Giles
continued talking, Oz's mind wandered, thinking of how maybe Giles was
right. Maybe everything could have been different. Maybe life in Sunnydale
didn't have to be a never ending nightmare. But now there was no way that
could happen, not without killing a lot of vampires. Oz sighed and
reluctantly tuned himself back in to Giles.
The End (For Now...)
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