Oz brought Willow, and that was enough.
Willow brought love, and dealt with it how she knew best – by reeling off statistics she had researched about how often labs screwed up blood work. She also brought a needle and a vial that she had Angel snatch from the hospital, claiming the need to send the blood to an independent lab her father knew of. The results came back negative. None of them, of course, knew the fedora-clad Balance Demon named Whistler had switched the vials. Whistler was lucky that way.
Life eventually returned to a more normal state over the next seven weeks before graduation. Xander recovered. Buffy got infected with a demon's psychic ability, and had to be fed the demon's heart so she wouldn't go crazy. Later that day, she stopped Jonathon Levinson from killing himself, and, in a fit of hunger, Xander discovered the lunch lady poisoning the Jell-O and saved half the school from certain death, or at least a horrible case of food poisoning.
Faith got her period.
Prom came around and the ex-demon named Anya asked Xander to the prom – or at least tried to, but Faith pushed her out of the way and declared Xander her property, and that if he was gonna embarrass anybody on the dance floor, it was damn well gonna be her. This, along with the fact that he got to second base and was headed for third on the steps of the school, finally convinced Larry that he wasn't gay.
That same day, though, Angel broke up with Buffy, and broke her heart. The Scoobies held her up as best they could, and Buffy was grateful to have a demon problem to focus on, instead of her emotions. After killing a few hellhounds the night of the prom, Buffy was happy and surprised to be given a completely new award by the students – class protector. Angel showed up for the last dance.
Xander danced awkwardly with Faith – his leg was only mostly healed, and he still had a pronounced muscle twinge that caused him to limp – and looked around at his friends. Willow was happily resting her head on Oz's shoulder, Buffy was holding onto Angel for what might be the last time, and even Jonathon had a date: the ex-demon named Anya. He looked horrified. It was a nice Prom.
A few days later, Angel was shot with a poison tipped arrow by Mr. Trick, the Mayor's vampire lackey. Hours and hours of arduous research produced very little. Wesley contacted the Council, and when they refused to help, Buffy quit. In a show of solidarity, Faith did the same – not that she had really followed their orders much anyway. Xander felt a little bad for Wesley – after all, he had gotten the Council to pay for his hospital bills, which he knew had to be enormous. But he stood by his girls.
Oz found, eventually, that the only cure for the poison in Angel was the blood of a Slayer. So Buffy and Faith broke into the hospital, grabbed a couple of empty blood bags, donated a pint each and let Angel drink. He drank, he lived, and then, citing two Slayers on the Hellmouth, he left. Buffy was again heart broken. She found Mr. Trick and well and truly kicked his ass before killing him.
And then it was time for graduation.
"Hey," Xander said, approaching Buffy and Willow in the student lounge. Willow had just finished petting the soda machine "You guys know how we've been worried about what the Mayor was gonna do? When the other shoe was gonna drop?"
"Yeah," Buffy said.
"Well, guess who's speaking at graduation."
"Siegfried?" Willow asked.
"No," said Xander.
"Roy?"
"No."
"One of the tigers?"
"Come out of the fantasy, Will."
"The mayor's speaking at graduation?" Buffy asked.
"I know," Xander said. "It's not fair. We're so gonna die."
"Hey, don't say that!" Buffy said. "We're gonna live. Now come on, let's go find Giles so he can tell us what the Mayor's up to, so that we can continue this living."
The group of them headed off for the library, after grabbing both Cordelia and Oz along the way. Whatever the Mayor was planning, they were certain they'd need everybody they had. They got to the library and found Faith and Giles conversing, and looking through some books.
"You guys heard?" Xander asked as he greeted his girlfriend with a kiss.
"About Mayor Wilkins?" Giles said. "Yes, we have. Unfortunately, with no leads, we can't tell what he's planning."
"He's not planning anything."
Everybody turned to see none other than Mayor Richard Wilkins III strolling into the library. Buffy, Faith and Giles immediately reached for weapons.
"Hey, hey, whoa, there's no need for violence," Mayor Wilkins said, raising his hands in the air. "Come on, now folks, do you need to be so hostile?"
"You poisoned Angel," Buffy growled
"Now, I did no such thing," said Wilkins. "I had nothing to do with that. I let Mr. Trick go long before that happened."
"Let him go?" Giles asked, warily.
"After he failed me," Wilkins said, "with the Box of Gavrok. I was going to kill him, but darned if he didn't disappear before I could get to it. I understand you took care of it pretty well, though, Buffy. Good for you."
"Why are you here?" Xander asked.
"To congratulate you," said Wilkins. "You're graduating. Quite a feat."
"I don't believe you," Faith said.
"Well, that's up to you, isn't it?" Wilkins said, smiling. "But you're right. I'm not just here to congratulate you on graduating. I'm also here to congratulate you on winning."
"What?" Cordelia asked.
"Winning!" he said. "You guys beat me, fair and square. Oh, I had a doozy of a time trying to find another way to ascend, but it turns out there just isn't one. Now I'm going to have to wait another three hundred years for an appropriate alignment. Whew. And I thought a hundred years was a long time! Well! Who knows what I'll see."
"Wait a second," Xander said. "You're telling us that you're just here… to say good job?"
"That's about it," said Wilkins. "You kids fought a good fight, and you won. Now how can I begrudge you that? Huh? I ask you! No. The rest of my term will be dedicated to community enrichment and safety."
"Safety?" asked Oz.
Wilkins smiled. "I don't like outside operators in my town."
"So," Faith said, "we won… and you're not going to be a threat for at least three hundred years?"
"That's right!" said the Mayor. "So stop worrying. It's over. Live your lives, if only until college starts. You folks have earned a break."
The Mayor left them in the library to muddle over what he'd said. They wore weapons under their robes despite his claims of peace, but it turned out that they didn't need them. Mayor Wilkins kept true to his word and didn't do anything but speak. They gathered together one last time across the street from the high school.
"Check it out guys," Oz said. "We survived."
"It was a hell of a fight," Buffy said.
"I meant high school," said Oz.
Buffy smiled. "Me too."
Oz shook his head. "Take a moment."
The seven of them stood there, looking at the school they'd attended for years. Or in Faith's case, the school she'd avoided going to for the better part of a year. Buffy and Willow nodded and started walking away.
"And the moment's done," said Oz.
Faith whispered into Xander's ear.
"Hey guys," he said to the rest of the group. "We're meeting at the Bronze later, right?"
"Yeah," Buffy said.
"Good," said Xander. Faith was holding his hand and starting to wander away. "We'll uh… we'll meet you guys there." He and Faith ran off in the direction of their apartment.
Buffy and Cordelia looked at the retreating couple, looked at each other, and had only one thing to say.
"Perverts."
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The End.