Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. I am getting no monetary gain from using them so please don't sue me!!

Saving the World…Again

"Good. Good, Angela. That's right. You've made great improvement today. Keep working on that roundhouse. All right everyone! Nice work today. I'll see you all tomorrow."

A chorus of goodbyes met Buffy's ears as the numerous girls scrambled to get their training bags and rush out of the room.

Buffy turned from the door to clean up her training room. As she steadily worked to return all the equipment to its rightful place, her mind once again turned to him. Lately it seemed that whenever she was alone he plagued her thoughts. He had also begun to invade her dreams. Not that this was unusual. But the frequency was.

Once she had learned of his death from Fredrick, an extremely annoying and pompous councilman, she had annually created a memorial in his memory. It was small and she kept it secret in her room. Just a picture of him, some keepsakes, candles, and a ring she had once thought was lost forever. She received it in the mail many years ago, just after leaving Sunnydale. The package was anonymous, but she knew it was from him. No one else had ever given her a claddagh ring. And especially one engraved with the word, Always. She had worn it on a chain around her neck since that day.

If anyone ever found out her secret, she was sure the council would freak. They always wigged out a bit whenever the 'vampire with a soul' was mentioned. And that was quite often, what with all the prophecies he was in. It seemed every other one contained some slight mention of him. Him. Angel.

Buffy sighed. She always seemed to get lost in thought thinking about him. She grabbed her own bag and left the room, closing the door behind her. As she walked down the corridors, she determinedly kept her mind off Angel, smiled, and returned the greetings sent her way.

As she rose in the elevator to the top floor and the location of her flat, with no one to distract her, her thoughts turned to him again. She briefly wondered if there was any significance in the sudden increase in dreams. As she was a slayer, most of her dreams were prophetic. But this time they couldn't be prophetic, just dreams. Angel was dead. He died in a fight with an extremely large and gruesome demon almost 120 years ago.

It seemed strange, to think that she had outlived the 247 year old vampire. Well, actually he had been 259 when he died. She was 28. She had only been in London with the watchers council for a few weeks. After having only found out just a few days before, that she herself was immortal, it was almost too much to bear at the time. But Giles had helped her through it. He had been a wonderful father to her.

The elevator doors opened and Buffy realized that her mind had wandered again. She really needed to work on that. How was she supposed to teach her potentials to focus if she herself couldn't do the same?

She exited the elevator and walked to her door.

"Unlock. Password: Mr. Pointy."

She entered and tossed her things onto the floor. Walking into the kitchen, she grabbed a frozen dinner out of the freezer and tossed it into the microwave. Her life seemed so pathetic whenever she ate these things. But it was better than eating in the cafeteria with all the potentials clamoring to sit near her, or with the watchers, younger than her, yet still somewhat seeing her as the young woman that needed their guidance. Included and yet separate from both.

All her friends had passed away years ago. Dawn had gotten married to a great guy, but they never had any kids. Once she had died, all her family was gone. She really had no one left. Well, almost no one. She had one friend. There was a junior watcher named Cassie that she had become pretty good friends with. She was no Willow, but she was still great. They worked together and had lunch together when possible.

After finishing her dinner, Buffy showered and climbed into bed. As she got under the covers, she realized she was looking forward to the coming dreams. It had been so long since she had seen him. But she still remembered every detail about him. As the nights dreams soon confirmed.

"Are you sure that you have translated the text correctly?"

"Of course. We should take this to the council immediately. They will be quite interested I'm sure."

"Yes, quite."