******Author's note: After a lo-ong hiatus from publishing fanfic, I have returned and decided I would start by publishing my very first fanfic that I have ever written. EVER. My first muse was in fact Buffy and the gang from Sunnydale. Before news broke that season 8 would be given to us in comics, I wrote this stab at what the future might hold for some of our favorite characters. It is rated M for language, adult situation and adult themes. I write for fun, not for profit. All things Buffy belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. No harm, foul or infringement intended. Likewise any songs referenced are the property of the singer and songwriter. Any original characters in the story are mine. I hope you enjoy my story. I always enjoy your feedback and if you leave some, I will always try to respond. Let's get to it, shall we?******

Chapter 1

Buffy woke in a cold sweat, her eyes wide. Nothing was familiar.

Not my bed. Not my pillow…Right. Hotel. Desertville? Sand City? Eh.

She looked at the clock. "2:13am. Prime slayage time a week ago. Not anymore." She shook her head. The only demons she had to deal with now were personal. She walked to the sink and splashed cold water on her face. She glanced in the mirror and mumbled, "Stupid Slayer dreams." She dried her hands and recalled the dream.

Gone. All gone. The Espresso Pump. The Mall. UC Sunnydale. Oh God, Mom's grave…and Tara's. Even Mr. Gordo. Nothing left. She was soaring high above the crater that used to be her home…her everything. Just nothing now. Big hole where my life used to be.

As she gazed into the nothingness, she could actually feel it…the loss, the hole, the emptiness. She simply shuddered at the feelings. Suddenly, she was standing above the crater in front of a white misty cloud. Then she heard words. Great. Slayer dream's complete. Get ready for the riddles.

"Slayer! The Slayer. You are the last to bear that title. Many came before you. All have fallen. You are the last Chosen One. We are grateful to you and to all who sacrificed before you. You have acted selflessly in the name of duty and destiny. It has therefore been decreed that you shall be rewarded. The return of any one thing lost shall be granted. You have twenty-four hours to choose."

Buffy blinked. "Ok, wait. You're who now? And I get what?"

The voice answered one question. "We are the Powers That Be. Decide well." Then the cloud vanished.

"Slayer dreams suck! Decide well? Return of any one thing lost…?" She buried her face in her hands for a moment. Then Buffy rummaged through the desk drawer and found a pen and some cheesy motel stationery. Things lost. She jotted down:

House

Car

Mr. Gordo

Family photos

University

Espresso Pump

Magic Box

Normal adolescence

Riley

Angel

She paused here. She had begun listing people. The Great Riddle Cloud had said 'any one thing'. Did that include people? It must. Mysterious riddling clouds surely could grant any request…right? Continuing the list hurt too much. Still she soldiered on:

Jesse

Ms. Calendar

Kendra

Deputy Mayor Finch

Mom

Tara

Spike

Anya

Buffy felt the goose flesh rise on her arms as she wrote the last two names down. Three days ago Anya and Spike had still existed. Poor Xander. She had passed his room earlier and heard sobs.

How can I ever make this decision? She flopped onto the bed. She'd been surrounded by so much loss. She'd caused most of it. "Hang on, guilt-trip girl. The cloud people said that this reward was for acting selflessly. This needs to be something for me."

She grabbed the pen and began crossing names off the list. "Sorry, Jesse. You seemed like a good kid and I wish I'd been able to save you. Ms. Calendar – I need to move past the guilt. Kendra – ditto, I'll always have Mr. Pointy. Finch – Not even really my fault there. You'd be proud of Faith though…she's come a long way."

Buffy glanced at the clock again. 5:06am. She had to get outside. Fresh air would help her think…clear her mind. She could get a run in and a shower before meeting the others for breakfast. "A hungry Slayer is an unproductive Slayer!" She moved to her duffle bag, grabbed her running clothes and her iPod.

She stretched in the parking lot and started out on her run. As she got in to her run and found her stride, her thoughts drifted. Choices. That's what life is, right? Nothing but choices and consequences of those choices.

The names remaining on her list weighed heavy on her mind. Spike. Good-old demon- with-a-soul-that-loved-her Spike. Their final words to each other still rang in Buffy's ears. "I love you, Spike." She confessed. Leave it to Spike though, to point out the bitter truth. "No you don't, love. But thanks for saying it. Now, GO!" A kiss. Blinding light. Some running for her life, a lot of jumping and somehow she'd wound up on the roof of a speeding bus.

Spike had gone down in a blaze of glory. Far more fitting to William the Bloody, shy Momma's boy with the heart of a poet, than to Spike, the savage beast Drusilla sired. Spike had ended his existence on earth as a champion. She shook her head. No, she couldn't bring him back from that. His memory would stay just that.

She heard the song change to Five for Fighting's "Superman (It's Not Easy"). Willow had set up their iPods. She had given each of the Scooby's one on their last birthday. Then Buffy did something she only did when she was alone or under the influence of a dancing demon. She sang along.

"It may sound absurd. But don't be naïve; even heroes have the right to bleed. I may be disturbed. But won't you concede; even heroes have the right to dream. It's not easy to be – e me."

She passed a sign. Dunestown. I'll have to remember that. Everything happened so quickly after the Big Boom. Most of it was blurry to say the least.

The bus had just barely outrun the destruction. They stopped out of harm's way to reflect back. A town destroyed. A world saved. A world now populated with countless Slayers. She was relieved of that burden now. The feeling of relief didn't last long. After the smoke cleared and the dust settled, they counted their losses. A few of the Potentials, guess we can't call them that anymore, didn't make it. Robin had been seriously hurt but looked like he'd pull through. Anya. Andrew told Xander how Anya had met her end.

Anya had died defending the life of a human that she probably would have been vivisecting just a few years earlier. The irony was not lost on Buffy and she smiled. Anya's struggles with her humanity had always been good for a laugh. Twenty years as a mortal, a thousand as a vengeance demon and the last years of her life as one of love's victims at the hands of the least likely source…Xander Harris.

She sighed at how far Anya had come. Her first apocalypse as a mortal she had mentioned running and taking a lunar shuttle. The next one, Buffy remembered how hard she had worked in formulating the plan that eventually helped thwart Glory. This last time, standing bravely with sword in hand, she fought hard. Anya's mortality was a punishment. She was finally free of the mortal coil she had once loathed so much. She'd handled her mortality well, but was she better off free of it?

Buffy was beginning her cool down as R.E.M. started to sing "End of the World As We Know It". "Funny, funny, Willow." She jogged on, singing. "That's great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes…"

Buffy was adjusting her ponytail as she walked in to the hotel lobby. Lost in thought, she didn't notice the redhead handing her a bottle of water.

"Umm, Buff? Good run?" She asked.

"Huh? Wha – oh, yeah. Willow. Good run. Thanks." She grabbed the water bottle, twisted the top off and swigged some down. "You're up early."

Willow smiled at her friend. "Ya know, sleep hasn't been a friend to the Scoobies. Next time I might consider getting a room that's not between Talks-To-Herself girl and Grief-stricken boy…says White Goddess who changed the course of everything."

Willow and Buffy shared a laugh.

Willow took a sip of her coffee. "Sucky Slayer dreams, again, huh? Of the apocalyptic variety?"

Buffy grabbed a handful of napkins and wiped her face. "Need to turn down the volume on my inner monologues, huh?"

"Eh, more like cheap hotel, thin walls." Willow smiled at Buffy. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Honestly, Will?" Buffy raised her eyebrows and took a final swig of her water.

"Nope. You know how I prefer it when sweaty Slayers lie to me." Willow wiggled her eyebrows and made a Willow-face.

"Gah! Willow Rosenberg, I swear!" She took that moment to smack Willow on the shoulder. "Where has that shy, plaid dress-wearing little girl who I met at the water fountain of Sunnydale High many years ago gone?"

Willow smiled and rubbed her shoulder. "I don't even think that girl exists anymore." She exhaled and blew the hair out of her face. "We've all changed so much. Hey! Nice try, Miss Avoidy!"

"I might feel more like talking post-shower. Right now, I'm still sorting it all out and feeling smelly. Ok?"

Willow nodded in the direction of a table with a laptop set up on it. "Ok. I'll be right here when you're done."

Buffy wrinkled her nose. "Hanging out in the hotel lobby, Will? Why aren't you in your room with Kennedy?"

"Oh, she's still, uhm, sleeping. Late night…she was up with some of the others exploring their new Slayer powers. Jumpin' high. Breakin' stuff, you know."

Buffy nodded slowly. "Right. Give me twenty minutes?"

"I'll count myself lucky if you're back in half an hour!" Willow laughed.

Buffy whapped her best friend on the head with the empty water bottle and trotted off, "See ya."