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June, 2017
"Kailyn Summers," Principal Snyder called out. Tristan gave his sister’s hand a squeeze and she smiled at him as she stood and walked out of the rows of chairs, up the aisle and onto the stage.
"Summers," he muttered, handing her the diploma. Kailyn gave him her most brilliant smile and switched the tassel on her cap to the other side. Tristan’s name had been called and she grinned at him coming up the aisle. As she walked back to her seat she smiled at her grandparents and her foster-parents—all four of them. Willow had never looked so proud in her life and Cordelia had gotten decked out for the occasion. Xander was beaming and Oz looked pleased—though Oz pleased was pretty much the same as Oz everything else.
Tristan followed her, also having gotten a glare from Snyder. He glimpsed Giles and smiled broadly at the librarian. He was leaving in a few weeks, going back to England. He’d decided to stay until they graduated, but no longer. As much as Tristan suspected Giles was going to miss Sunnydale and all his adopted family there, he knew the Watcher was very happy about finally going home.
Tristan passed Sarah and blew her a kiss. She blew him one back—they’d been going out for almost a year now. She was going to Berkeley in the fall—not too far from Stanford, where he was starting college. Ms. Kingsley would not hear of Kailyn going to college, so she was going to take some classes on-line while focusing on Slaying. She was moving out too—as much as she loved Willow and Oz and their children, she wanted her own home, so she was getting an apartment when Tristan moved to Stanford. She’d been helping Willow with PR for Dingoes Ate My Baby and so far she was doing a great job, so it might be a permanent daytime career.
"Hey sis," he whispered, sitting down. "We did it."
"Yeah," she said softly. "Yeah, we did."
"What’s the matter?" Tristan asked, wishing he had his sunglasses. They’d both agreed that there were times you just couldn’t wear them.
"I wish she could be here to see us," Kailyn replied. Of course he knew who "she" was. Their mom.
"I wish she was too. But I think somehow, she knows," he said, looking up at the clear sunny sky.
"You really believe that?" Kailyn asked.
"Boy do I," he said, and she smiled. They were eighteen and they had their whole lives ahead of them. They’d been born of darkness, and they were light. They’d been born of light and they were darkness. They were human, and they were not. And they were different, but they were the same, two parts of one. Two parents, one soul. Two children, one soul. And all the darkness and the light it could hold.