I couldn't access it at all, Bill. Sorry.

Allison, did I'm at work and it's slow (pouring (and freezing) rain), so if you wanted to send some frottage my way I'd be happy to receive it.

Just another 250 word piece.

Edited to change the title slightly.

Ouroboros/Oedipus

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That should have been the end the first time, but it wasn't. She cheated death by embracing it, serving it, becoming it. Eventually, death turned on her, sharper than a serpent's tooth, and once again, all should have been over. Once again, it wasn't.

Cheating death is better on your own terms, she soon discovered. Used in life, used in death. She found a way to cheat them both, dying this time so that someone else could live.

Huddled naked in the darkness, she wonders when it will be enough, when she'll be allowed to rest, to stop. She wonders who she was--flashes of blood and skin, of fear and need, of a name... Angel? That's not a name. What was hers? She must have had one.

Salvation comes not in the form of angels or demons or priests or prayers. It comes to her slim and raw, young and familiar. Something nagging at the edges of her memory again, something she should know. It's important.

It slides away again, like mercury on glass. Shimmering distorted reflections, nothing more. She lets him lead her to shelter, clothe her in garments he says have been abandoned. He finds her food, washes her face and dresses her hair. Takes care of all her needs until she finds she has needs she has forgotten, like she has forgotten so much else, and draws him to her pallet so he can take care of those as well.

It's beautiful, Plei. Though it does leave me slightly confused.

I left the pairing vague, but scattered it with clues.

Have you figured it out yet? I wasn't expecting to have *this* particular bunny. I was just playing "give SA disturbing mental images" when it bit me in the ass.

Okay... Buffy, obviously. But the fellah? Lemme reread.

It's not Buffy. Let me tell you that straight off.

Hookay.. Ummm... Lemme read it again.

dying this time so that someone else could live.

See, I thought Buffy post-Gift...

Umm. I don't get it, then.

Dru?

Darla and Lindsey.