Disclaimer: None of the characters from the Buffyverse belong to me, they're owned by Joss Whedon and Co. Other characters however, came from my own overactive imagination!

Rating: T, overall (for violence, mild language, maybe some sexual innuendo in later chapters, but there will be absolutely NO smut!)

Spoilers: Anything from cannon is fair game, however this doesn't follow anything that occurs in the comic series (Season 8).

Author's Note: Hello everyone! This is the first thing I'm posting here, so I thought I would say a quick hello... which I just did.
A little bit about the story now. It's been about 9 years since the last time I wrote any Buffy fanfic, so first, I'd like to apologize if my characterization is a little rusty. To be completely honest with all you lovely readers, I lost interest in Buffy during the 6th Season, therefore I wrote this with very, very minimal knowledge of what occurred in the last season, and haven't included any characters from the later seasons of BtVS or AtS (simply because I don't feel like I know the characters well enough to write them accurately). I tried my best to not really mention any of the seasons unless necessary, so maybe it won't really matter! The premise of this story is a little bizarre... essentially, when the whole vampire craze started thanks to Twilight, I started to worry that with Hollywood's penchant for re-makes that someone would try to re-invent Buffy, and the thought of other actors playing the characters I grew up loving so much just terrified me! But then, this hare-brained idea for a story popped into my head and my evil muse who'd been on an extremely long hiatus just wouldn't stop pestering me until I wrote it down. So now, over a year, 243 pages, and 62 chapters later, here is the beginning of this story. I'm re-reading and editing before I post each chapter, so I'm going to try and put a new one up each week if I can. I hope you all enjoy it!
p.s. I've always been a Buffy/Angel 'shipper, so this story will eventually have that element, but I do also love Spike, and he will be in the story as well, just not romantically linked to Buffy, sorry.

Silhouette Lies

"Do you recall it's name
As its suggested beck and call
This face and heel
Will drag your halo through the mud
Ash of Pompei
Erupting in a statue's dust
Shrouded in veils
Because these handcuffs hurt to much
Still scalping these ticketless applause
And when they drag the lake there is nothing left at all "
- Cicatriz ESP by The Mars Volta

Chapter 1: Elegy

Flames licked higher and higher up the temple walls, the heat unbearable, and smoke so thick that it crushed her lungs with every breath. A fist connected with her stomach, and she flew into the stone pillar behind her, slamming into it hard enough to cause a shower of stones and dust to rain down upon her. With the impact, she lost her careful control of her breathing and collapsed into a fit of heaving coughs.

She wouldn't last in here much longer., she knew she needed to lure her opponent outside, but even with her heightened senses she couldn't make out anything further than a few feet in front of her through the billowing smoke. Suddenly, the fist reappeared, cutting through the smoke, barrelling directly towards her face. She managed to spring into action and catch the massive fist in both her hands, however it didn't take long before her arms began to tremble, and the creature violently shook her off, sending her sliding along the stone floor and into an altar not far away. Her back slammed into something hard and metal, and she reached behind her to discover a round inscence burner on a chain.

She sluggishly jumped to her feet, and began to swing the inscence burner over her head like a makeshift Morningstar. Through the din of the crackling flames she could just barely hear the sound of the demon grunting as it charged at her again. She released the burner in the direction of the noise and with a satisfying metallic thunk it connected with the creature, causing him to stumble backwards; this was her only chance.

She took off sprinting towards where she remembered the entrance to be, shielding her face from the flames and stumbling over debris. The beast roared behind her and she could now hear heavy footsteps on her tail, when suddenly the building groaned and a deafening crack echoed above her head, she looked up, but before she had an instant to process the sound, the roof of the temple gave way. A large wooden beam landed on her shoulders. She crumpled to the floor, pinned beneath the beam, her ears ringing, limbs tingling, then suddenly... nothing. She couldn't move. There was a dull throb in the back of her neck, but below that she felt nothing at all. She was sure the beam had broken her back, she was paralyzed, trapped in the blaze as more wood and stone rained down upon her. There was no longer any sounds to alert her to the demon approaching where she lay, it was probably buried beneath the rubble as she was, but it was no matter, the smoke and the heat continued to tear at her lungs, and with her ability to breathe hampered by the beam her vision began to swim.

No one knew she was here. She'd come on her own, tracked this monster all the way to Thailand by herself, nothing but blind rage and a hunger for vengeance edging her on. Xander was dead. He'd survived the Hellmouth, only to be butchered by some random demon. A strong demon yes, but just a demon. A run of the mill. everyday, ugly creature they'd fought a hundred times over in Sunnydale. And now she'd never avenge him. One of her only true friends, who'd stood by her side through thick and thin, who put his life on the line to help her; and she couldn't even take care of the monster who'd killed him.

She felt a tear slide across the bridge of her nose, warming in the heat of the fire before dripping onto the stone floor beneath her. She cried out in anger, a cry lost in the roar of the inferno and the rumble of the collapsing sanctuary. She wheezed and choked under the weight of the beam, it seemed to take more effort to fight for consciousness with each passing second. With her last ounce of strength she tried one last time to move, anything, any part of her body, even just a finger, but still nothing; it would end for her here, buried in the rubble. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, tears clung to her eyelashes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I love you all... I'm so sorry" she whispered, then let herself succumb to the darkness.

The longest surviving Slayer in all of history, was dead.

~o~