No, you don’t, but thanks for saying it. Now go. I wanna see how it ends.

Buffy...Buff...BUFFY

“Bu- ”

The Slayer jumped as she awoke from her daydream. It had only been two weeks since Sunnydale had been destroyed in the fight with the First and she was still dreaming of the final minuetes of Spikes life.

She shook her head to try to get the painful memories out of her mind then she looked up to see Willow staring at her. She could she the compassion and sincerity in her friends eyes. It was a look Buffy had seen from Willow many times. It was the look Willow gave her when she knew something was bothering her.

“You miss him don’t you?” she asked softly.

Buffy was amazed that Will knew exactly what was bothering her. God, I’ve known her for seven years, she can probably read me like a book, which I guess is what Willow does best.

“I do” Buffy sighed. She looked out of the window in her new room staring at the beautiful English scenery “Truthfully I miss it all. Sunnydale was home, even though it was Hellmouth central, everything was there. Every happy memory every terrible heartbreaking memory, they were all there.” Her voice trailing off thinking of every first and every last. Sunnydale was where she first fell in love, the first...and second place she died, where her mother was buried. Everything was there, now everything was gone.

“So do I ” They sat in silence for a moment then not knowing what else to say they both got up to start their first of many long hard days of work as the new Watchers Council.

*********************

“So what’s on the agenda for today? Are we going to kill some vamp-yres or getting some more Watcher training?” Andrew asked from his seat at the table.

“We are going to discuss some strategies on how to deal with all the Slayers and where they are needed. And for the record just because we are in England doesn’t mean you have to talk proper...or in a horrible English accent” Giles replied to the newly appointed watcher sitting across from him.

“Oh, ok good because it’s starting to hurt my throat”

Giles looked around at all the people sitting at the table. Buffy was sitting at the head of the table talking to Willow and Xander. This is how it should be, no worrying about death or the most recent apocalypse, they need to be able to just talk without having to worry about saving the world. Buffy smiled at him catching him staring , he smiled back then focused his attention to the rest of the room. Dawn and Kennedy were deep in a conversations about some new fashion trend and Faith and Wood were talking about possible vacation spots. Deciding that it was time that they should start he cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.

“I know it hasn’t been that long since Sunnydale and The First and we could all use a little more vacation, but I think it’s time we start on our next project”

“Ah, come on Giles at least when we were in high school you’d give us summers off” Xander said with a grin.

“Well except the one Summer where Buffy ran off to LA and the one summer she...uh...died” Willow added.

“I know, but we have a lot of young girls and more on the way and the sooner we get things running the sooner we can take a vacation.” Giles said a bit defensively.

“Since we’re on the subject, what should we do with them? I mean you’re my Watcher and now kind of the Head Watcher, Xander, Wood, and as much as it goes against my better judgement, Andrew, are really all we’ve got” Buffy helped. “ I mean Will’s the mojo chick, Dawn is still too young, plus school will be taking up most of her time. I think we need more people”

“Yes, well let’s make due with what we have and we will deal with that later.”

Before Giles could finish the conference doors opened and one of the new slayers came in.

“Um, sorry to interrupt, but we have a little demon problem outside”

With a smile Buffy and Faith got up.

“We got this”

*********************

“Remind me to teach these girls not to over exaggerate” Buffy thought. Their ‘little’ demon problem turned out to be about thirty demons of all breeds. They had more than enough people to fight, but it was still kind of shocking. As she snapped the neck of the Fyarl she was fighting she looked over to see two Polgara ganging up on one of the youngest of the new Slayers, Jaime. She grabbed one of them from behind and used her element of surprise and the demons forward motion to stab his partner with the skewer he had fastened to his arm. Then Jaime decapitated the Polgara Buffy was holding. Before Buffy could congratulate her a demon she didn’t recognize knocked her down from behind. Using her momentum, Buffy rolled and ended up on her feet. She crouched under the demon’s punch then swung her leg out to knock him over. She pulled out her stake and dusted him with ease.

“Well that was almost too easy” Buffy said, but as she looked down at her arm she saw blood flowing from a large gash on her biceps “Almost”

She looked around and surveyed the situation. All the demons had been killed and everyone else was in fairly good condition.

“So B, what do you think that was all about?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m sure Giles would want to know”

***********************************

“So Willow what do you want to do? I mean we could go to the classes and training that Giles said we were required to do or you know we could stay in” Kennedy gave Willow her most innocent look, but she didn’t seem to pick up on the hint.

“You know required usually means you have to go, it’s not an option type thing. Plus what would we do cooped up in her all day?” Realizing what her girlfriend meant Willow gave her a sheepish grin “You know we can do that later”

A little hurt Kennedy left for her first afternoon class.

Willow watched her go. She could tell that Kennedy was a little mad that she didn’t want to stay and ...do stuff, but Willow was just feeling weird. It’s not like she really wanted to have to go to the Coven and practice her witchiness, but lately she wasn’t really enjoying Kennedy’s company. She had feelings for her, but there was some feeling Willow had that something was very different now. It wasn’t just some feeling it was more like some magick power was telling her. That’s one reason she was going to the Coven. She wanted to see if they could help her figure it out.

It was a short walk to the Coven and Willow loved all the trees and flowers. The fresh air was also a plus, better than the dirty LA air that always seemed to migrate over to Sunnydale. She greeted an old woman, one of the oldest in the Coven as she came in.

“Ah Willow how are you? We’ve missed you.”

“Me too, but I’m back, for good hopefully”

“I know you had a question before we get started”

“Oh, yes lately I’ve been having some feeling that...something’s different. That’s the only way to describe it. It’s like there’s some shift in the world . Something’s changed . I really can’t describe it any better.” Willow said a little confused by her own explanation.

“Well give me your hands let me see if I can shed some light on your problem.”

Willow did as she asked and sat as still as possible and closed her eyes trying to focus on the feelings. After a few long minutes she opened her eyes. The old woman had a confused look on her face.

“What did you see?” Willow asked.

“Nothing but a lot of blonde. Does that mean anything to you?”

Willow thought hard for a moment. Blonde that was all she saw? Odd. I have to ask Buffy about that one.

“Nope, sorry”

“No, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you out with your problem. If there’s nothing else let’s get on with our lesson then shall we?”

**********************************

“Ah, well that’s very interesting. The last time we saw something of this magnitude was with the Initiative. Of course you weren’t around for that, but I’m sure we filled you in. I doubt it’s anything to worry about.”

“But that’s the thing Giles, it wasn’t a problem. Usually demons put up more of a fight. I know we kinda have an army of our own to take care of them, but individually they were weak.” Faith was trying to explain what happened with the mornings demon party, but Giles didn’t seem to care. Maybe she was trying to make something out of nothing, but it just seemed odd to her. He used to love things like this.

“Well I’ll look into it, but I don’t think we have a major problem on our hands” Giles took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He watched Faith walk out of the room and sighed. He truthfully didn’t believe that they were in trouble, but it was more that it was too soon for them to have to get into another major battle. He could tell that they were all having problems with what happened in Sunnydale. They had all lost some loved ones. Xander was trying to shut himself off from the world because he lost Anya. Even thinking about her made Giles heart sink. The ex-vengeance demon always had a charming innocence about her. He missed that, and he probably always will.

Buffy was having a lot of trouble dealing with Spike’s death. Although she would never admit it Giles knew she had strong feelings for him. Most of the Scoobies had never liked him, but after he got his soul they learned to tolerate him. Then he gave his life to save everyone and something no one thought he would do. He didn’t know how long it would take to heal these wounds.

He got up from his desk and looked out at the horizon. The sun was setting and it turned the sky into beautiful shades of red. He looked out over the grounds of their new home seeing the bountiful amount of trees and wildlife. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw something move. There was rustling in the trees. He heard a scream and then he saw hordes of demons spread through the grounds of their new residence.

“Bloody hell”

****************************************

Xander shivered. It was starting to get cold. He knew he was going to miss the warm Southern California nights. He was starting to get a headache from all the talking the teenage slayers were doing.

“Can we please focus for just a little while longer,” he said.

“Why can’t we just go in? It’s cold and it’s starting to get dark. We’ve been out here for three hours already.” Kennedy whined.

“As Slayers we spend most of our time in the dark. And I just don’t mean night time. You need to get used to it.” Buffy chimed in nodding to Xander “Sometimes we never see the sun.”

Buffy let her words hang in the air for a moment. She didn’t know if the girls picked up on what she said, but Xander looked over to her and smiled . It was his understanding smile. She knew that he knew exactly what she was talking about. She looked into his eyes and saw their past together. All the happiness, yet there was also so much pain. She knew the pain and heartbreak wasn’t over with, but for now they had a little break. Or so she thought.

She knew what was happening before the rest of them did. She saw the hordes of demons come out of the shadows of the trees. She grabbed a sword and charged. Xander noticed them too and ran inside to get more weapons and reinforcements.

Buffy ran to the nearest demon and kicked it in it’s stomach. It stumbled backward, but didn’t fall. She gave it another kick then shoved her sword through it’s heart. She went to the next one. It looked so disgusting she didn’t even want to touch it. Purple slime was sliding off of it in buckets. And it reeked. She went to stab it, but then it was gone. She looked around and didn’t see it. Then it kicked her hard in her gut sending her flying. It appeared in front of her again bringing one of it’s huge hands down on her skull. Before it did she rolled out of the way and she decapitated it which sent slimy purple goo flying everywhere.

She saw Faith, Xander, Giles, and Andrew run out with more slayers. She didn’t know how many demons were there now, but it was way more than was there before.

Buffy squared of against a vamp with a really bad fashion sense. She kept killing, but they wouldn’t stop. They just kept coming and she hoped that everyone else was ok. She could feel her power coursing through her and she let the power of the Slayer take over.

It seemed like forever until all the demons were slain. They weren’t as lucky as last time. Just about everyone was wounded, but none were life threatening.

Faith turned to Giles “And you said this was no big deal”

*******************

“What do you think it is?” Buffy asked. She was sitting in the conference room with Giles, Willow, and Xander. They were all a little worried about the recent demon attacks.

“I’m not sure. My only theory is that we weren’t as finished with The First as we thought. It does have a major following and is probably out for revenge” Giles answered. He took a sip of his tea and looked around. Everyone knew the enormity of his words. If they were true there lives would probably know no peace for a very long time.

“Well if it is what are we going to do? I mean I think we all agree that the demons we’ve been fighting are kinda weak, but we can’t take on a whole army of them. We only survived the ubervamps because we had...Spike.” Willow looked over at Buffy waiting for her response. But when she did all she saw was her friend looking away. At length she looked back at hem with tears in her eyes.

“I...I can’t. It’s too soon. I’ve lost, we’ve lost so much. Why can’t we have one day, just one where we don’t have to worry about death or the end of the world. I can’t do it anymore.” Xander got up and went over to her. He took her in his arms and tried his best to comfort her.

Willow looked over at Giles emotion starting to take her over “What are we going to do?”

***************************

“It’s been three days since our last demon attack. I think my initial theory about The First was a little rash and probably wrong. With that in mind I think it is wise that some of us to take a little vacation. Buffy and Dawn have left for Rome. Willow and Kennedy are on their way to South America and Xander will be leaving for Africa in the morning. I’m not sure how long they will be gone, it’s up to them. But I know we can make due without them. Well, I think it’s best we all get some rest. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Las Angeles, California

“Sooner or later they'll tip their hand, and we'll find out why they really brought us here. Meanwhile, we do the work our way, one thing at a time. We deal with whatever comes next.” Angel picked up a piece of mail from his desk. He tore it open and the amulet he gave Buffy dropped out. A black cloud started to erupt from it. It formed into a body. More and more detail started to form until it was something Angel knew very well.

“Spike”