August 31: Big Happy Family [Firefly]
Title: Big Happy Family
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Rating: T/PG-13
Crossover: Firefly/Serenity
Spoilers: Post-series for B:tVS; post-Serenity
Notes: 5th and last in a series including Star Pupil, Man of Honor, The Brigand and Flying True as additions to the Ancient Slayer 'verse. Also takes into account the events of Damage Done. Yay; this is the most times I've posted for August in years!
Summary: Buffy watched as her son's crew digested, debated, decided, and kicked themselves into motion, and swallowed through a deep swell of emotion. 500 words.
Buffy watched as her son's crew digested, debated, decided, and kicked themselves into motion, and swallowed through another deep swell of emotion. Mal had Scoobies. Her baby boy, who'd grown up wanting to be a teacher until the war called him, had chosen the fight all on his own and gathered his own Scoobies.
She was so proud of him she could burst. Even though she knew she had no right. His second was right to glare at her; she'd thought she was doing the right thing protecting him with her absence, but the sins of her legacy had followed and found him all the same. And he'd found and saved her lost great-grandchildren; the ones she hadn't even known were missing.
At least one of the Powers from Earth that Was had followed humanity to space; the reconstituted Watchers-- poured from the colony ships like a packet of seeds and fully reestablished within the first decade-- had been sure of that much. Buffy had often thought it must have been one of the death gods, since humans still lived and died among the stars and they weren't the types to care about who governed whom or how. Whichever it was certainly hadn't intervened when the Watchers had splintered into factions, taking the Slayers to ground on the outer worlds and leaving the government-allied survivors to try to replace them. Even so, Buffy briefly turned her face toward the skylight, whispering thanks under her breath for the first time in centuries.
Sure, maybe he was now a pawn of the greater war just like she was-- just like River was-- but he'd lived, defeated his first Big Bad with the help of his friends, and didn't even hold her long absence too much against her.
Faith already had her bag, but Buffy had left hers in a room near the Maidenhead, not sure whether Mal would give her the chance to explain; she ducked out while he was on the bridge and jogged back, picking up the few things she'd rather not leave behind. Clothes, of course. A few of her favorite weapons. A family tree journal thirty years out of date. And a capture full of old Earth memories, meticulously transferred with each new digital media advancement: the last remnant of her sister, her mortal friends, and all those left behind to retreat to an enclave when Earth had been overrun by demons. With any luck, Spike and Illyria held out there still-- but barring one of them following her here, they'd probably never know.
She carried it all back to Serenity, carefully ignoring her son's relief that she hadn't disappeared again, then took a deep breath and handed him the capture, cued up to Dawn's face-- so like his.
"I should have showed you years ago," she said. "It hurt too much. But you deserve to know."
Then she settled in to tell Mal all about her Scoobies, something in her healing with every chuckle and wondering smile.
-x-
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Rating: T/PG-13
Crossover: Firefly/Serenity
Spoilers: Post-series for B:tVS; post-Serenity
Notes: 5th and last in a series including Star Pupil, Man of Honor, The Brigand and Flying True as additions to the Ancient Slayer 'verse. Also takes into account the events of Damage Done. Yay; this is the most times I've posted for August in years!
Summary: Buffy watched as her son's crew digested, debated, decided, and kicked themselves into motion, and swallowed through a deep swell of emotion. 500 words.
Buffy watched as her son's crew digested, debated, decided, and kicked themselves into motion, and swallowed through another deep swell of emotion. Mal had Scoobies. Her baby boy, who'd grown up wanting to be a teacher until the war called him, had chosen the fight all on his own and gathered his own Scoobies.
She was so proud of him she could burst. Even though she knew she had no right. His second was right to glare at her; she'd thought she was doing the right thing protecting him with her absence, but the sins of her legacy had followed and found him all the same. And he'd found and saved her lost great-grandchildren; the ones she hadn't even known were missing.
At least one of the Powers from Earth that Was had followed humanity to space; the reconstituted Watchers-- poured from the colony ships like a packet of seeds and fully reestablished within the first decade-- had been sure of that much. Buffy had often thought it must have been one of the death gods, since humans still lived and died among the stars and they weren't the types to care about who governed whom or how. Whichever it was certainly hadn't intervened when the Watchers had splintered into factions, taking the Slayers to ground on the outer worlds and leaving the government-allied survivors to try to replace them. Even so, Buffy briefly turned her face toward the skylight, whispering thanks under her breath for the first time in centuries.
Sure, maybe he was now a pawn of the greater war just like she was-- just like River was-- but he'd lived, defeated his first Big Bad with the help of his friends, and didn't even hold her long absence too much against her.
Faith already had her bag, but Buffy had left hers in a room near the Maidenhead, not sure whether Mal would give her the chance to explain; she ducked out while he was on the bridge and jogged back, picking up the few things she'd rather not leave behind. Clothes, of course. A few of her favorite weapons. A family tree journal thirty years out of date. And a capture full of old Earth memories, meticulously transferred with each new digital media advancement: the last remnant of her sister, her mortal friends, and all those left behind to retreat to an enclave when Earth had been overrun by demons. With any luck, Spike and Illyria held out there still-- but barring one of them following her here, they'd probably never know.
She carried it all back to Serenity, carefully ignoring her son's relief that she hadn't disappeared again, then took a deep breath and handed him the capture, cued up to Dawn's face-- so like his.
"I should have showed you years ago," she said. "It hurt too much. But you deserve to know."
Then she settled in to tell Mal all about her Scoobies, something in her healing with every chuckle and wondering smile.
-x-