Rosebud - Traitor
This is my first story for the year and it's a rosebud. I've used a prompt from over at Writers Toybox.
If you're feeling in the mood to wirte and haven't any ideas for a story why not go and look at the prompts there. Something may jump out at you, give you a plot to srart you off.
Rosebud prompts
Traitor
Author: Ares
Email: ares13@spin.net.au
http://ares132006.livejournal.com
Written for Rosebuds at Writers Toybox
Prompt: Traitor
Word count: 384
Unbeta'd, all errors mine alone.
Buffy forgave Xander his betrayal. But she would never forget what he did. She wondered whether it would have made a difference. Would she be dead, or worse yet, undead at Angelus’ hand if Xander had told her the truth: that Willow was attempting to give Angelus back his soul, thus bringing her beloved Angel back? Would she have stayed her hand, would she have tried to stall until Willow came through? Her actions could have been her undoing. It was moot now. Xander hadn’t told her, he had been full of hurt and venom and had made his decision. He had told a lie. She couldn’t blame him. Not then. He had good reason. People had died. People they knew had died. And a piece of her had died when Angel had been sucked into Hell. He had been an integral part of her heart. It had taken Angel coming back from Hell to heal the hole he had left behind.
But now? Here was Xander asking her not to kill the woman he loved. No, not a woman, the demon he loved. The demon had killed a dozen frat boys, let alone the hundreds she had cursed or killed over the course of a thousand years. Where was the self-righteous boy now? Where was the young man who railed at the machination of evil? Where was the boy she knew as Xander who had insisted she kill her demon lover? Gone. Nowhere to be seen. Xander was living her nightmare, only Xander wasn’t the one who had to go kill the monster. Xander was spared the act of shoving a sword through his lover’s chest. What right did he have in asking her this, to stay her hand? He had none. She used his own words against him and he blanched. Willow’s sharp reply, cut off in mid-stream only fuelled her anger. The cat had been let out of the bag. Xander’s betrayal was out in the light of day, and it was ugly.
Buffy knew what she had to do. It was her duty. If she couldn’t save the one she loved, neither could she spare the one Xander loved. Payback’s a bitch, she thought, except Buffy was above such pettiness. Her heart hollow, aching for her friend, she went to kill the beast.
End
Jan 2013