FIC: No Happy Ending

[angearia]

Title: No Happy Ending
Summary: When Buffy’s reality becomes a nightmare, how can she hope to wake up?
Pairing/Characters: Buffy, ensemble
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for Buffy Season 8 Retreat arc.
Disclaimer: Joss is boss.
Word Count: 1146
Author's Note: This story explores the canon question of Season 8 and The Girl in Question and how fans choose

Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

See, Buffy, this is what happens when you have too much chianti before bedtime... ;-)

Not sure I'd consider this a 100% happy ending, but yeah. Liked it.

[angearia]

No more wine for the Buffster!

Thanks. And yeah, not a happy ending. For the reader or for Buffy.

[secret_scoobie]

I think this is fantastic. I love this as an alternative, and I love the ambiguity. Really well written and really gripping. Plus you even got a bit of Xawn in there which is a hot topic atm!
Greatness as usual Em.

[angearia]

Thanks Jess!

[rahirah]

Ooh. Good point. Buffy falls for Xander the minute he becomes completely unavailable (I'm sure she always felt in the back of her mind that she could have stolen him from Cordy or Anya if she'd wanted to, but from her sister?)

[angearia]

Thanks! And me too. I'd much rather read her dealing with the harsh reality.

That speculation about something happening to Buffy that's never happened before - it could be her confessing feelings to Xander and him still not choosing her. Ouch.

[slaymesoftly]

Frighteningly good and real. Poor Buffy - living in denial until the very end. Nicely done!

[angearia]

Thank you!

[stormwreath]

First comes love, then comes heartbreak and mayhem and death because everyone dies when they’re happy in her world, right?

Buffy breaks through the fourth wall again. :-)

I'm going to assume that when Buffy ran down the steps and tripped she actually hit her head, and the whole thing from Andrew through Twilight to the Immortal is a concussed hallucination?

Also, 'amara' in the last line - doesn't that mean both "beloved" and "bitter person"? Which would be kinda neat. :-)

[angearia]

Buffy breaks through the fourth wall again. :-)

She does like breaking the rules...

I'm going to assume that when Buffy ran down the steps and tripped she actually hit her head, and the whole thing from Andrew through Twilight to the Immortal is a concussed hallucination?

You know, I think there's a few ways to read this - 1) Season 8 is the reality and she wakes up in TIGQ-canon; 2) Season 8 is the dream, TGIQ is the reality and she wakes up from a nightmare of what could have been; 3) The entire piece is the dream she has while stealing 30 minutes of sleep because she's been up for the past couple days preparing for Twilight's attack and she dreams about her fears of everyone dying and her angst over seeing Dawn and Xander kiss (since it goes AU from canon at the very beginning).

Also, 'amara' in the last line - doesn't that mean both "beloved" and "bitter person"? Which would be kinda neat. :-)

Indeed, both "beloved" and "bitter".

[fangfaceandrea]

yeah... I'm going to be mean here but amara only means bitter, beloved is amata.

[angearia]

Amara does mean beloved also. The name stands for "beloved, steadfast, bitter" - it means both.