A/N: Found a challenge that I wanted to try (though I tweaked it a little bit). Here's the guidelines so y'all get a bit of a heads up…hopefully without too many spoilers.

Buffy/Tara, they met at Hemery where Buffy ruled like Cordy did in Sunnydale and Tara was Hemerey's Willow.

Willow/Xander are a couple since "the fluke"

Faith showed up in S3, but things didn't happen exactly the same as the show. I'll explain how it went down in the story.

A/N 2: Plus one other change I've made, Dawn really is Buffy's sister (not a magically formed clone of Buffy). This may turn into a season 4-7 rewrite; we'll have to see how it goes. Thoughts and flashbacks are in Italics.

Queen B

Buffy was training in the back yard when Dawn came rushing out to let her know she was home from school. Buffy rolled her eyes at the bouncy over-energized thirteen year old, "Wait aren't you supposed to meet with your tutor at the library after school?" Buffy asked, thinking she had caught her sister skipping out on something.

"Yeah but they had to do some renovations in the library this week so I asked mom and she said I could have my tutor help me at home."

"Ok, and don't forget to meet me out here right after supper if you're serious about me training you." The slayer reminded her younger sister.

Dawn had dragged their mom to a Scooby meeting at the Magic Box a few days ago and after a long conversation had convinced the gang that she should learn to defend herself. Faith had actually been the first to support the idea, even surprising the Scoobies by revealing some of her past to them in telling them what life was like on the streets of Boston, reminding them all that demons weren't the only evil in the world.

"Don't worry Buffy, I'll be ready. Is Faith helping mom at the gallery today?"

"Yeah they got a new shipment today so they'll probably be home later than usual. I wasn't completely sure that we should have let her stay with us after the incident with the deputy mayor, but I think it's helped everyone in some way."

(Flashback)

A hand reached out from the shadows and grabbed Buffy's shoulder, acting on instinct she grabbed the thing by its arm and threw it against a metal dumpster. Faith reacted almost simultaneously plunging her stake into the things chest Buffy realized it was human too late to do anything to stop Faith's strike. Faith stepped back and her face fell when she didn't see a pile of dust but was instead faced with a human man dressed in a grey suit clutching a profusely bleeding chest wound and gasping for air. She fell against the wall nearly in shock herself, "B-B-Buffy why isn't that vamp turning to dust?" She asked in a scared whisper.

Buffy was unable to answer as she tried to apply pressure to the wound, though she knew the man only had seconds left. With his last bit of strength he grabbed Buffy's shirt and struggled to say "Stop the mayor's ascension!" Then he slumped back to the ground as the last breath he would ever take escaped his lungs.

Buffy turned to Faith ready to yell and scream at the girl about how stupid she had been, but when she saw her sitting with her knees hugged tight to her chest and tears streaming down her face. Buffy immediately lost any anger she had. She placed her hand gently on Faith's trembling shoulder, "Come on Faith, we need to tell Giles what happened."

"I'm sorry B. I'd like to, but I can't make my body do anything right now." Faith looked at the older girl with horrified eyes, "Are you sure he was human?" She asked her voice wavering as her lips trembled. When Buffy didn't answer she began sobbing uncontrollably.

Buffy saw that Faith was in a state of shock so, not wanting to waste any more time, she picked up the younger girl and carried her to Giles' apartment. After recounting the story Giles and Wesley the two watchers worked together calling what contacts they needed to sort the problem out. In the end it was Wesley who solved the problem and then managed to get Faith to talk about what happened. The younger watcher then placed another call, this one local. He took the phone to the other room while Buffy held the still distraught Faith on the couch and Giles made them all some tea. Within four hours of getting to the apartment Wesley had taken care of everything, Faith had stopped crying and fallen asleep on Buffy's shoulder, and Joyce had shown up after Giles called her.

Once Joyce arrived she gently woke Faith up and had a quiet conversation with the dark haired girl. Almost as soon as their conversation was over several sheets of paper were printed out by Giles' fax machine, which Joyce, Wesley, Giles all signed. Finally overcome by her curiosity Buffy asked what the papers were for. "Well, Buffy, now that they're signed it means you now have a newly adopted sister." Joyce answered shifting her smiling gaze between the two teenagers in the room. She then moved closer to Buffy and whispered in her ear, "I hope you're okay with this, cause in the coming weeks Faith is gonna need a lot of support and people willing to listen to her, whether she admits to it or not." Buffy nodded and walked over to Faith wrapping her arm around the still shaking girl.

"Come on F, let's go home."

(End Flashback)

Luckily Faith transitioned well to living with people who cared about her, though it did take her a while to get used to dealing with people who had no ulterior motive. Joyce also made sure that Faith got back in school, and with a little tutoring from Willow she was able to test into the next school years sophomore class, which is the class she would have been going into had she not dropped out in sixth grade. She found herself slowly being able to trust people again. It was strange for her going from being an only child with an abusive, alcoholic mother to suddenly being a middle child with an older and younger sister and a mother who, though she could be strict and somewhat scary when angered, didn't beat her for mistakes she made. Faith still had nightmares sometimes about that night in the alley, but with the help of her new family and friends she was able to accept it as an accident and use it as a motivation to hone her skills so she would never make the mistake again.

Dawn, for some reason, was actually the first one Faith found herself opening up to. The younger girl, though she didn't fully understand some of what Faith had gone through, knew when to sit quietly and listen, when to comment on issues, and when to let the dark slayer cry in her arms.

Dawn and Buffy both shook themselves from their memories and back to the present when the doorbell rang. "Go see who it is Dawnie, if it's your tutor go ahead and let her in. If it's someone else let me know."

"Alright Buffster. You gonna keep training for a while?"

"Yeah, I'll be in after another half an hour probably."

"Ok, see you later." Dawn finished as she hurried in to greet her tutor.

Tara stood on the front porch of 1630 Revello Drive after ringing the doorbell she stepped back to admire the well maintained building. A few moments later Dawn answered the door letting the blonde girl inside. Tara seeing the ever bubbly teen gave her a half smirk, "Good afternoon Dawn. Got a lot of homework today?" She asked as she stepped through the doorway.

"Not really, I have some math and history, but as usual I only really need help with the English." Dawn answered as she led Tara into the dining room where her books were waiting.

About half an hour later, with her math and history finished, Dawn and Tara were nearly through with her English. Buffy walked in glancing at Dawn sitting at the table with her tutor going over the Summers girl's homework. Wiping the sweat from her forehead with a towel Buffy asked, "Do you guys want something to drink?"

"Sure, could you bring us some lemonade?"

"No problem Dawnie." Buffy said briefly making eye contact with the somewhat familiar blonde who was helping her sister. Assuming that she had seen the girl on the UC Sunnydale campus, Buffy went and got the girls their drinks.

Tara was also struck by the familiarity she felt with Dawn's sister. She found herself more nervous than usual around the older Summers sister. Must just be my imagination, Tara thought to herself when she left after helping Dawn get through her assignments, It can't be her a bitch like that could never have a family as nice as Dawn and Joyce. That girl can't be Buffy Summers. She just happens to look exactly like Buffy, and have the same last name…dammit I can't believe I chose to go to college in the same town she moved to. Fuck, well I don't think she recognized me so maybe it'll all be okay. Yeah right Maclay. She chastised herself, What're you gonna do? Try and avoid her in this one Starbucks town? You're just going to have to confront her the next time you see her…yeah like you're brave enough for that. Said a voice in her head, sounding a little too much like her father, Shut-up! I will do something; I'm not as weak and pathetic as I used to be…I hope.

Buffy went back downstairs after her shower, noticing that her sister's tutor had left. She sat down next to Dawn on the couch to watch TV until Faith and their mom got home. After a while Buffy could not get the blonde girl and the fact that she was sure she knew her somehow out of her head, so she asked her sister, "Hey Dawn, what's your tutor's name?"

"Tara Maclay." Dawn answered, not taking her eyes off the TV, so she missed seeing Buffy tense up at the name.

Buffy recovered quickly and stood from the couch, heading back for the stairs, "I'm gonna go finish up my own homework." She lied as she made her way up to her room, which was now being used by Faith while Buffy was at college, now fully remembering the shy girl and just what she had done to her their freshmen year of high school. Crap! What am I gonna do? I can't believe I run into her of all people! I have to try and make it right somehow, maybe Xander and Willow can help me figure out how. I'm glad I already told them what I was like my freshmen year, it's amazing Willow decided to remain my friend knowing what she had been put through by Cordelia and how like Cordy I was. I'll have to talk to mom when she gets home, damn, she's gonna be upset with what I did to Tara and probably disappointed that I've waited this long to tell her about it. Buffy's thoughts raced as she flopped onto her bed covering her face with her hands. God Tara I was pure evil to you. Will you even be willing to let me try to make amends?

That night Buffy is doing a routine patrol with her last stop being the UC Sunnydale campus before returning to her and Willow's dorm. It had been a slow night, only three newly risen vamps and one drunken polgara demon. She was currently following a group of three vamps who were wandering the campus and knowing that there were some vamps, like Harmony Kendall, that weren't truly evil, no matter how hard they tried to be, the remnants of the human soul was just too strong to overcome sometimes. So she would give these three a chance and let them go unless she saw them attack.

She did not have to wait very long as a familiar young woman left the campus library and started heading to the dorms, leading her past the vamps. Buffy moved quickly and quietly to be in a position where she could act immediately if she needed to. As the girl began walking past the trio of undead they surrounded her, "Don't you know it's not safe to be out after dark, and alone?"

"God, don't you guys ever think of anything new to say. It doesn't even have to be original, just something not so cliché or over used. Maybe try quoting a popular line from a western like "time to meet your maker" just something different. It really would brighten my day." Buffy interrupted stepping out of the shadows.

Two of the three were now focused on her, "How about," One asked as they changed to their demon faces, "Die bitch?"

"Nope, hear that one at least twice a night." She answered as she staked one vamp and knocked the other to the ground.

She turned to help the other girl, but before she could move she heard the girl quickly recite, "sancta flamma urat." And the third vampire burst into flame, burning with a pure white light.

The remaining vamp got back to his feet and Buffy quickly dealt with him, creating a third pile of dust. "Well I have to say, I'm glad to see you can take care of yourself Tara. That was some pretty cool magic there, never seen anything quite like it, and that's saying something considering I live on a hellmouth and my best friend is a powerful witch. And I also seem to have caught her tendency to babble."

"Oh…h-hi B-b-buffy…um I gotta g-g-go s-sorry for troubling you." Tara stuttered never lifting her head to look at Buffy.

"Tara," Buffy said to the quickly retreating girl, "Please wait. I know I don't deserve your time and you have every reason to hate me, I won't blame you if you don't, but would you be willing to talk with me sometime? And if you can't give me another chance, I promise to stay out of your way. I know it doesn't mean very much right now, but I've changed a lot since you last saw me, done a lot of growing up, even averted a few apocalypses."

Tara stood there a moment, her eyes closed as she warred within herself, her anger at Buffy trying to fight off her naturally kind nature, it was remembering what her mother think on the subject that finally made her turn to the shorter blonde, "Ok B-b-buffy you've got yourself a d-deal. And you can start by walking me to my dorm. By the way just w-what are you exactly, I mean you handled those vampires like they w-w-were n-nothing. I probly could've handled them m-myself, b-but I'm a trained witch, how did you d-do it?"

"Oh, well I'm the slayer, the Chosen One, well one of the Chosen Two actually."

"Really? You're the s-s-slayer. I've read about them in one of m-my books. Wait ch-chosen two?"

"Yeah, it's kind of a long story. My first year in Sunnydale I fought an ancient vampire called the Master. It was prophesied that he would kill me so I decided not to fight him. Well some of his minions slaughtered some kids in the school and my friend Willow, the witch, found them, it terrified her. Seeing her like that reminded me of what the slayers purpose was. So I fought the Master and he killed me, while I was under his thrall, he drank some of my blood, then I passed out and he dropped me into a puddle of water. Luckily Angel, a vampire cursed by gypsies with a soul, and my other friend Xander found me in time for Xander to bring me back with CPR, but I was dead long enough for the next slayer to be called." Buffy explained.

"Kendra I met when Spike and Drusilla came to town, she was a beautiful Jamaican girl, raised by her watcher her whole life, so she was better trained than me, but her problem was she never questioned anything to do with the Watcher's Council. Anyway we benefitted from knowing one another, it was good for me sparring with her and I showed her how and when to question things that didn't seem quite right. She was killed by Drusilla though," Buffy paused recalling the painful memory of finding Kendra dead, "And now there's Faith she's sixteen and my mom adopted her after some things went down last year, but that's really more her story to tell. Thing is you have to win her trust first, and due to her past she finds trusting hard to do." Buffy finally finished her story.

"Wow," Tara said, only partially disbelieving, "That's one h-heck of a story." By this point they were walking up to Tara's dorm room, "Um…well this m-my room, th-thanks, for you know earlier with the vamps."

"No problem Tara…um here's the number for my cellphone. Call me when you're ready to talk, I really have changed and I want another chance if you can give it." Buffy said before turning to walk to her and Willow's dorm. She found her redhead friend waiting up for her.

"Ok Buff, first of all go take a shower. I ordered us a couple pizzas and when you're all clean from the slayage, we're gonna get you caught up on your homework."

"You're the best Will." Buffy said before grabbing a towel, an old t-shirt, and a pair of sweats and walking into the adjoining bathroom, they had been lucky enough to get one of the few dorm rooms with its own bathroom attached.

When Buffy stepped out of the bathroom clean and in more comfortable clothes the pizza was already there waiting. The best friends sat there for a couple hours going over Buffy's homework and talking about their week. Finally Buffy finished telling Willow about what had happened earlier that day, then about her slaying earlier that night. "What do you think Will? Do you think we'll be able to work it out?"

"It'll all work out Buffy, and I know cause well you know how Cordelia moved to LA? Well she and I have been talking on the phone about once a week and, while we still have stuff to work out, I would say that she and I have become friends, so yes I think things between you and Tara will be ok in the end, especially if she's as good a person as you've said." Willow said placing her hand reassuringly on Buffy's shoulder.