Buffy simply gazed out of the window of the bus. She thought of nothing. Her mind was just empty space, her body numb. Every now and then Angel's face flashed into her mind and the scene played out for her again.

"Buffy, what's going on?" he said, looking up at her with those soulful eyes. She'd known in an instant that something was different, but it took her a moment to dare to believe it.

"Where are we? I-I don't remember." He was confused; obviously it would take a while for the memories to come back to him. Killing miss calendar, torturing Giles... it would all soon come back to him and he would feel the pain of guilt for things no man with a soul should have to remember doing.

"Angel," she uttered softly.

He looked at her with love in his eyes. "Your hurt," he said, typically thinking only of her.

No, it couldn't be real, could it? This was just a trick, a sick trick. Surely Willow would have said something...

"Oh Buffy... God. I... I feel like i haven't seen you in months," he said while embracing her tightly. His eyes were damp from tears, of sadness and of shock.

As she let herself fall into the hug she sighed, and the truth set in. The feel of his body was too wonderful. She closed her eyes as she found herself beginning to cry.

"Oh, my god, everything's so muddled. I..."

Buffy opened her eyes again as reality kicked in. The realisation came upon her as a wave of grief and shock. Just as quickly as the ecstasy of finding herself in the arms of her lover had arrived, it was now replaced with a cold sensation. Acathla stood behind Angel and his mouth began to open.

Angel felt the change in her. "What's happening?" he asked.

Buffy's heart broke. She couldn't tell him.

"Shh, don't worry about it," she reassured him, brushing her fingers over his lips and across his cheek.

She had to kiss him then. For a passionate moment she allowed her mind to drift into bliss and forget that the world were about to end if she didn't do something. The moment didn't last long enough. She looked deeply into his eyes.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you." he told her honestly.

She reached out to touch his lips again. The sensation of his skin. This couldn't be happening. But she knew. She knew what she had to do.

"Close your eyes," she told him, nodding reassuringly. He trusted her so much. He closed his eyes without question. Buffy tried to keep it together, but the emotion was bubbling at the surface. Very gently, she kissed him one last time. His face held a gentle smile.

Then she stepped back, drawing back the sword, and thrust it into his chest. With the deed done, she could only watch in horror as the swirling vortex began to reduce. She couldn't look at his face, but she heard him cry out, "Buffy," before her lover, hand held out in shock, was swallowed by the portal, sending him to hell.

The room grew unbearably quiet. It took a few seconds but her face finally broke and her hands went up to bury her tears in them. She turned to leave, and once she was out of the mansion, she started running. She ran and ran until she couldn't run any more. She ended up at the park, and collapsed onto a swing. She leaned her head on the chain, not knowing what to do now. She'd killed him. He was really gone. How could they have done this? Maybe if they had found the disk sooner. Maybe if she had focused on Angel instead of fighting that other vampire, he wouldn't have been able to pull out the sword. Maybe there had been another way to stop the portal; she hadn't even tried to find out! My god, what if she had done something different, he could be here right now. And now he would never be anywhere. The tears continued to poor down her face but she made no effort to cover them this time.

She looked up at the sign of movement, and Jonathon stopped, staring at her tear strewn face. He looked uncomfortable. She knew then she couldn't stay here in sunny dale. Even Giles and everyone... they would look at her like that. And when she told them... they might not understand. How could they understand? Her mother had said don't come back, and she was kicked out of school. All she ever brought her friends was fear and pain. No, it was time to stop hurting people. Buffy decided she would find a place to hide away and be what a slayer was supposed to be. Fight vampires, not have a social life. Slayers weren't supposed to have friends, parents, teachers... lovers. Being a slayer meant being alone. It was time to do just that.

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Buffy had managed to find herself the most dingy place to live and a small job at a Café in Metropolis, within just a few days. It wasn't surprising how friendly everyone was to a girl of her age who so oozed vulnerability. She used to use her looks and small stature to manipulate people, back when she was just a girl. But now she found their drooling stares repulsive. While it wasn't a totally horrible place to work, some of the customers would slap her on the ass. Fighting every urge of her body she would refrain from beating them senseless. She did need this job after all. She saw a man in a nice charcoal suit walk in.

"Tell you what, you can serve him. He's one of the nicer one's. But you got to share you tip with me, cause he's a generous one," her co worker Janice bargained. Buffy nodded solemnly. She had not smiled in over a week.

The man had seated himself in a booth towards the back. He was in his late twenties, and very attractive. He had floppy dark hair and fairly tanned skin. He wore glasses, but they almost made him seem cuter. She walked over too him and he looked up and smiled. If she had any capacity to feel left she might have returned it, for it was full of honesty and charm.

"Hi there," he said warmly, and then, reading her tag, he said, "Anne."

"What can I get you?" she asked, faintly aware that she was being a little rude ignoring him.

"Just a coffee please, two sugars," he said, and continued to try and make conversation. "So, you new here I see? Are you from around here?"

Unable to contain her annoyance at his nosiness, and not trusting that this man were as genuine as she at first thought, she spoke quickly, "Look, I'm just trying to serve you, I'm not looking to make friends. So why don't you go find some other girl to try and flirt with, or whatever it is you think your going to get out of this little exchange, cause I can tell you now, you don't want to mess with me."

"Trust me, he's the last person you have got to worry about in this place," came a voice from behind. "I still don't know why he insists on coming."

"Well I would say the wonderful service, but I think I'm going to have to rethink that," the man said with a hint of amusement in his voice. Buffy spun around to see a brunette with a very formal bob, dressed in a skirt suit. She was looking at her friend in an inquisitive way.

"I'm just going to go and get your coffee," she muttered, and quickly left the uncomfortable situation. She still couldn't shake the feeling that this man was more than what he seemed.

The more she thought about it, the more she realised that it was more than just his words. His aura felt different. As a slayer she had learned that her instincts were acute. She could feel out a vampire in a room full of people. He wasn't a vampire, but there was something odd about him. And plenty of demons could take on human form, and pretend to be charming. She was definitely going to have to keep an eye on him.

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Buffy had finished her shift just as the two were leaving. She decided to follow them. It felt good to have something to take her mind of Sunny dale. And this could be serious. She walked far enough behind them so that she couldn't be seen, with her hood up so they might not recognise her. Her acute hearing meant she could just about make out what they were saying.

"I'm telling you Clark, there is something weird about this. This rise in old homeless people is beyond coincidence. There has to be something to it," Lois rambled on at her partner.

"I don't know Lois, it is a good human interest story, but I get the impression that's not the angle you want to take," Clark humoured her.

Lois barely acknowledged what he said. "And they are just wandering around saying 'I'm no one.' Why Clark?"

"I don't know Lois, but something tells me you have a theory," he said, pretending to find her leaps exasperating, when really he found everything about her absolutely wonderful.

She had a sparkle in her eye. He knew she was on a rampage. "An underground slave ring."

"That's a bit of a stretch Lois. And why would they only use old people? Surely younger people make better slaves?"

"Yes, but older people are easier to keep as prisoner's maybe," she replied, looking up at his sceptical face. "Okay, so I don't have all the answers yet, but I will do soon."

He smiled at her. He knew she would get to the bottom of it, just like she always did. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with this woman, but he knew it couldn't happen. He had told her how he felt, and she had shot him down. She would never really love him the person, and he couldn't even hate her for that. After all, he'd made superman, and he'd been the one who couldn't resist flying with her and letting her swoon over him. Superman would always come first in Lois' eyes. He'd created a god, why would he expect her to settle for anything less.

Buffy still followed closely behind. She watched as a homeless man pushed his way in between Lois and Clark.

"That's not very polite," Lois said to the man, as he turned around to face the people he had just barged into, with a blank expression on his face.

"Are you okay?" Clark asked, concern playing across his face. He looked back down at Lois.

"I'm no one," the homeless man stated and Lois watched in horror as he started to back into the traffic. Clark looked about, torn between simply saving the man who was about to be run down in his street clothes or dashing off to change into superman as quickly as he could. But before he could make up his mind even at super speed, a small hooded figure had pushed the man out of the way of a small pick up truck, only to be hit by it herself.

Lois and Clark ran towards the figure that had saved the man, who continued to stumble on his way. The girl was already sitting herself up as the driver got out of the car to see if she was okay. As they got closer they recognised her as the defensive waitress from the café.

"Are you okay?" Clark asked.

"My god, I'm so sorry. Where did that man come from?" said the driver, who was hovering behind Clark, who had knelt down to check the girl for injuries. Using his x-ray vision, he was amazed to find nothing. She was absolutely fine.

She began to stand, seeming very uncomfortable at the crowd she had managed to draw.

"I'm fine… sorry," she managed to say. She hugged herself protectively. Clark thought she must be around 16/17. She was a very pretty young girl, but her face seemed hard and her eyes cold, like someone who has seen a lot of pain.

"Hey, let's get you to a hospital, you might have a concussion," Lois said to her, but her eyes seemed shocked that there was no visible injuries. The truck had hit her pretty hard.

"No, no thank you. I'm just going to… go." She said, and made a quick exit, hoping no one would follow her. Fortunately they didn't.

Buffy's head was a little foggy. Her body ached a little from the impact, but even she was shocked by how little effect it had had on her. She shook her head and thought back to what the older pair where talking about. The homeless man she had just saved, could he be one of the very people they were looking to investigate. It looked like Metropolis had quite a bit of strangeness going on too.

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"And then she just got up and walked away, like it was nothing. Chief, I'm telling you it was the weirdest thing. I mean only Superman would have survived that truck, but then he wouldn't have been knocked down like that, it would have just smashed around him or something, oh and the homeless guy was definitely one of the people I was talking about, 'I'm no one' he said. What the hell does that mean? You've got to give me some time for this story; I just know it's going to be huge…" Lois was aware she sometimes had problems ordering her sentences when she was excited, and from the look on her editor's face, he was dubious. "Ask Clark, if you don't believe me."

Clark, who had been staring out of the window thinking about the girl, looked up at the sound of his name. "It was definitely strange," he agreed.

Jimmy opened the door the editor's office. "There is a blonde girl sitting at your desk Clark."

Lois gave him a look, and he frowned. They both headed out to his desk. A skinny girl, fairly tall, with very pale features and a half a heart tattooed on her arm looked lost as a kitten. She looked hopeful when they approached her.

"Lois Lane and Clark Kent?" she asked timidly.

"Yes, can we help you," Clark said, gesturing she sit back down, while he pulled up a chair for himself and Lois.

"It's my boyfriend Rickie. He went missing last week, and I looked everywhere trying to find him. We stayed in a lot of different places, but he wasn't in any of them…" she seemed to be struggling to get out what she wanted to say.

"I'm sorry, but we don't really handle missing persons, but if you go downstairs…" Lois began, but was cut off by the girl, who suddenly looked quite determined.

"No, you don't understand. I found him. He was dead. But he looked like an old man. I saw one of your articles on the homeless people in town… and I thought maybe you might know something about why my Rickie is dead."

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Buffy had been serving coffee and sandwiches all day, and wanted nothing more than to get out of there. But she though it might be a good opportunity to ask some questions if she hung around a bit. She approached Janice who was wiping tables.

"So, that guy yesterday, the generous guy… who is he?" Buffy asked, trying to sound natural.

Janice looked up at her with a smile. "Yeah he is cute. No one stands a chance though. You watch the two of them a couple more time and you'll see how obvious it is he's in love. She's the only one who can't see it. But that's the way it is sometimes isn't it."

"They come in here a lot then?"

"Yeah, it's weird, two upmarket citizens like them. I don't know why they pick this place." Janice mused

"Upmarket?" Buffy questioned.

"Yeah, they work for the Daily Planet. Reporters. Don't usually trust reporters, but he's just so lovely," she said, picking up a plate off the table and popping it on her tray. She pointed to a newspaper on a table next to them. "See for yourself."

Buffy picked up the newspaper. The headline read 'Superman saves orphans." She had heard of Superman since last year. Word had spread even as far as Sunnydale about a caped hero. Seemed like he was even stronger than Glory. Buffy was just glad that he was on the right side, as she wouldn't like to have to fight him. They said he was an alien. With everything she had seen, she could believe that. Nothing was a surprise to her anymore.

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The girl regretted taking the alley the moment she had stepped onto it, but had been reluctant to change her course. She was just being silly. She stopped when she felt movement behind her and spun around. Sighing and almost laughing she knelt down to stroke the cat that had followed her into the dark path.

"Can you believe I was afraid of you?" she said quietly.

"I know something you should be afraid of," came a deep male voice in the dark.

The girl stood up quickly and backed against a wall. As the man came into the dim light from the street lamp, she screamed at the disfigured face and sharp teeth she saw.

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Buffy had been patrolling most nights, but was constantly surprised at the big difference between Metropolis and Sunnydale in terms of vampire activity. But she was no longer on a hell mouth. However, that didn't mean nothing was going on, and as long as she had her powers, she was going to keep patrolling. When she heard the girls scream, she thanked the timing as it came from the alley she was just reaching.

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Clark was patrolling high above the city. It had been a quiet night, but with little need for sleep, he spent most nights scanning the city looking for people in need of his help. When he heard the girls scream, he flew straight in the direction it had come from.

111111111

Buffy just strode into the alley. The vampire seemed shocked at her appearance without warning. She used to pun at this point, she remembered, but found that she didn't have the heart. Killing vampires just wasn't funny.

"I only ordered one juicy girl, but if you're giving it away…" The vampire smiled.

Buffy didn't reply. She produced her stake from the sleeve of her hoodie and assumed a fighting stance.

"Alright girly, I got time to dance," the vampire said, still amused, not thinking for a second he was in danger.

"Get out of here," Buffy said to the girl, keeping her eyes fixed on the creature in front of her.

"Don't go too far," the vampire called out, a snarl in his voice.

11111

Clark spotted a girl running out of an alley way. He swooped down and stopped in front of her. She was crying hysterically and stumbled straight into him. Recognising him, she calmed a bit, realising she was relatively safe now.

"What happened," he asked her.

"T-that girl… he… he…" was all she managed to get out before falling apart again.

Clark sped into the alley, just in time to see a small blonde girl about to murder a large man with a wooden stake. He super sped up to them, grabbing the stake out of her hand and keeping her pressed against the wall. He was shocked to see the same face he kept running into recently. The waitress from the café.

The Vampire ran off into the street, and Clark eased his grip on the girl slightly. She took this opportunity to twist around his arm quickly and duck out of his grip. He hadn't been expecting it. She tried to run after the man, but Clark was soon in front of her again. Holding her in place with a little more care this time.

"You're coming to the station with me, miss. You have a lot of explaining to do."

"I'm not going anywhere," she said, looking up at him in defiance, anger and grief filling her delicate features. Yet again she managed to shake herself out of his grasp. The girl was definitely stronger than she looked. Intrigued, he eased off a bit.

"Well then, why don't you tell me what was going on right here, and why you were about to kill that man," he said, folding his arms.

"That wasn't a man," she muttered.

"Excuse me?" Clark asked.

She shook her head. "Look, I know you like some sort of hero around here, but you don't have a clue what you're doing, or what really goes on. You must have stopped hundreds of things like this, and you still don't see. Giles was right, people see what they want to see and ignore what they don't."

"I'm from another planet. Believe me; I can be pretty open minded. Why don't you try me?" he asked her gently.

Something had been tugging at her memory and it hit her now. The strange sensation of aura that she had felt just yesterday was the same in this superman. He had the same hair, the same skin… and the same eyes.

"I'm the slayer," she said, knowing he wouldn't understand. "And you're Clark Kent."