Happy New Year!

Disclaimer in first chapter. Additional disclaimer: I do not own the work or character Buffy references with her quote, though it'd be cool iffen I did!

A/N: Wow... just... wow. I am floored by the response the first half of this story has garnered, I only hope that part two lives up to all of your expectations. Thanks goes out to soulfulone for correcting my french, and a mega-happy squeal for FaithUnbreakable: glad you like it!

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"It's cold," Jason commented, cupping his hands and blowing on them in an entirely unnecessary gesture. Despite the temperature he was dressed in his usual monochrome club-fare: tight mesh black shirt and PVC pants with sturdy boots underneath.

Anita ignored him as she mentally went over the alterations she would be making in her usual routine. Laying to rest a zombie she herself had raised was very different from giving a living - if unnaturally so - woman her peace.

"Ma petite," Jean-Claude called softly, "It is almost time."

She nodded slowly, biting her lip and frowning down at her ritual knife. "Go tell them," she muttered to the blonde wolf inattentively, gesturing to the two women standing huddled a few feet away.

"Me?"

"You."

Jason looked from frighteningly powerful yet surprisingly short woman to other frighteningly powerful yet surprisingly short woman and shrugged. Stepping lightly over the river flotsam, he joined the two travelers by the riverbank.

Two sets of eyes, blue and hazel, locked on him unerringly as two eyebrows, one brown and one gray, rose in identical expressions of polite curiosity. With their arms folded against the cold and wearing similarly styled clothing, they made a slightly eerie picture against the dark water and darker sky.

"Anita's almost ready. You, um, might want to start making your goodbyes."

Dawn smiled a trifle sadly, "I've been preparing myself for this day for a long time." She glanced over at her sister, a wealth of expression on her wrinkled face as she reached out to clasp a smooth hand in her own gnarled one. "Everything that needed to be said, we said a long time ago."

"I love you, punkin belly."

The witch-Key rolled her eyes, flicking away a small bead of moisture as she returned the sentiment, "Love you too, Buffy." They embraced then, with hands still joined, made their way back to the Animator. Jason trailed along behind, too overcome by the atmosphere of solemnity to crack one of his usual jokes.

Though he did take a moment to enjoy the swing of the blonde's young-old hips.

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"Are you sure you want to do this?"

The Slayer nodded, already inside the small circle of white salt so pristine it seemed to glow against the muddy riverbank. The Animator was in front her, the rest of the group arrayed in a semi-circle a little further back while the river prevented anyone from coming up on their backs and interrupting the ceremony.

Seeing Anita's continued uncertainty, Buffy grinned reassuringly. "'To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure,'" she quoted softly, shooting a wink at her sister.

Dawn snorted, tears now running down her face open and unchecked, "Unfortunately for you, your mind has never been what anyone would call well-organized!"

"Hey," she pouted, mock-indignantly, "Sometimes there's a method to my madness!"

The blue-eyed woman coughed something that sounded an awful lot like 'Thanksgiving,' causing the blonde to flush. Serious again, Dawn nodded to Buffy, "Give everybody hugs from me, and as a special favor: slap Xander upside the head - just for old time's sake."

"That's not a favor, it's a pleasure."

"11:58," Jason interrupted, frowning down at his digital.

Instantly all eyes focused on Anita as she took a deep breath and stepped forward, reaching for Buffy's arm and clasping her elbow. The blonde automatically returned the gesture so that their flesh was pressed tightly together from wrist to forearm. Raising her knife, Anita made a long cut midway down their arms so that the blood ran together and dripped down onto the salt circle.

"With blood I call your soul forth," the Animator intoned, sweat beginning to bead along her hariline as she felt her power rise. The smell of death and rich earth filled the air and a cool wind ruffled her hair.

The blonde gave a full-bodied shiver, scrunching her eyes tightly closed as she felt the Slayer rise. The ancient entity expressing curiosity at the feel of death so close and yet not of her own making. A smell of hot, arid sand and old blood rose to mingle with the scents of dirt as their powers first touched, then blended.

Abruptly, Buffy's eyes popped open, revealing a strange golden glow that seeped outwards to cover first her head, and then her entire body. The radiance encompassed her whole skin, shining through her clothes. The blood welling up from the cut was an almost bronze shade, coloring Anita's where it touched and leaving the ground oddly singed as it dripped down.

The gold light seemed drawn to the cut, fading slightly as it became more brilliantly focused around the two women's arms. It drew tightly together, absorbing drops of the blood that had pooled against their skin before suddenly leaping up to hover as a brightly shining ball of light in the air.

Panting now, Anita continued: "With salt I bind you to your death. With blood and breath and magic, I bind you to your death. Buffy Anne Summers, be at peace and live no more!"

The body that had once housed the One Girl In All the World seemed to crumple in on itself before slowly collapsing to the ground. Anita staggered a bit before sagging down beside the corpse, leaning heavily against her undamaged arm.

The golden sphere pulsed once, twice, three times before spinning a little, then bouncing up and down. It fluttered over to Dawn and hovered in front of her face for a moment, flickering madly like a deranged yellow Tinkerbell. Then it rocketed straight up into the sky where it slowly faded from sight amongst all the other shining stars.

Silently, the group watched until the soul was swallowed by the night sky. Quiet reigned except for the faint sounds of Anita's scratchy breathing and the quiet racket of the city around them.

"Did it work?" Jason asked finally, his reluctance to break the silence finally beaten by his need to know the outcome of this night's workings. The others shuffled a little closer, Jean-Claude lifting a - surprisingly unresisting - Anita into his arms as they waited for the old witch's answer.

Dawn nodded slowly, a pained smile etched across her face as her tears continued unabated. "Yeah, Jason. It worked." She wrapped her arms about herself, as if to hug her feelings closer and remove herself from the group.

But Jason would not be dissuaded from his questions, "How can you tell?"

Her smile was bittersweet, "I was made from Buffy. A part of me will always be with her, and that part..." She bowed her head and swallowed thickly, brushing furiously at the wetness that streaked her face. "That part tells me that she - she's happy again."

"What do we do with..." Anita trailed off, looking at the body. She knew what she wanted when she died. After hearing about Buffy's experiences with resurrection the first thing she was going to do tomorrow was call her attorney and have him go over her will and funeral arrangements with a fine-tooth comb: cremation all the way!

Dawn walked over and crouched down, brushing a few locks of blonde hair away from her sister's peaceful face. Bending her aged back and neck, she brushed a gentle kiss against the still forehead, then whispered a few quiet words in a language never before heard in that particular dimension. With a subtle flaring of green light, flames consumed the body, their heat making quick work of even the bones. In a few short minutes, all that was left of Buffy's visit to that realm was a sister, a nasty cut, and a memory of a happy death.

"Happy New Year, Buffy," the witch-Key whispered quietly.

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End Part Two of Two

End Fic

A/N2: May you finish the year more happy then you started it, with better friends than you began it, and more love in your heart than it can hold. (Belated) Happy New Year, everybody. With ♥, from your friendly neighborhood amusewithaview.