Prologue

OK, a little back story might be in order. One of my best friends is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In case you don't know, here's the spiel that Watchers (stuffy British dudes who are supposed to find Slayers and train them) love to give at the drop of a hat:

"Into each generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill to fight the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers."

So, like I said, Buffy is the Slayer but, as these things tend to do, it got complicated. After seven years of battling various nasties (pretty much any monster you've ever drempt of actually does exist), we finally came up against The First Evil. It had started a campaign to wipe out all potential Slayers. Yeah, I know, you're wondering what all this Slayer, potential Slayer crap is.

Well, magicky mojo guys who created the Slayer had the bright idea that there'd only be one at a time. One girl in all the world to fight all the evilness. Not exactly a fair fight, right? That's one reason why Slayers had an average life expectancy of only a couple years after they were activated. At any given time, there were dozens, if not hundreds, of potentials throughout the world so, when one died, the next could be activated and the cycle continued. Buffy was pretty much the first one to buck the system. She's the oldest living Slayer and we figured it's because she wasn't discovered by the Watchers until she was sixteen. Usually, the Watchers knew about potentials when they were still young, took them in and trained them so they'd be ready when they were activated. Problem was, they only thought of the Slayers as tools, weapons to be used as they saw fit, and had a set of rules and standards that they instilled in the potentials that limited their ability to adapt to the unexpected. They were trained to be unemotional and detached, to react certain ways to certain situations, but when something new came at them that the training didn't cover, they couldn't think outside the box, couldn't think with their hearts, and it got them killed.

Now Buffy, she had her own style and was plenty imaginative, using techniques the Watchers never would've thought of, much less approved. She had friends (me, Willow and, eventually, Giles) and family (her mother, Joyce, and her little sister, Dawn) she loved and who loved her, something the other Slayers lacked; when you're disconnected from everything and everyone, you lose sight of what you're fighting for, you're missing the passion, and maybe even the desire to stay alive. Even after Giles became her Watcher, she refused to tow the line and continued to do things her own way. After much frustration, Giles came around and saw things from Buffy's perspective, even siding with her against the Watcher's Council, which led to his expulsion. That didn't sit well with the Buffster and she confronted the Council, having come to the realization that she was the one with the power. They needed her, not the other around. She put them in their place and got Giles reinstated.

So, the demon fighting continued, even our personal ones, which seemed more and more nasty as we got older, and then The First attacked. It called itself The First Evil, capital letters and all, and considering what it was capable of, we believed it. Like I said before, it tried to wipe out the potentials, and got a bunch of them before we found out and stepped in. Giles began collecting the girls that were still alive and brought them to Sunnydale so that we could protect them and try to train them, ourselves, with the help of Faith, the only other living Slayer – Buffy died once… actually twice, but the first time resulted in Kendra's activation, then Kendra was killed and Faith was activated - who'd returned after The First's minions tried to kill her, too. So, there we were with a couple dozen teenage girls living at Buffy's house and my apartment, trying our best to keep them alive until we could figure out a way to defeat The First. It still managed to get a couple of them.

Finally, Buffy'd had enough. She gathered everyone, including Spike… OK, quick backstory: Spike's a vampire who managed to survive the numerous attempts to kill Buffy, mostly through sheer dumb luck, and I think party because Buffy felt some sort of lost-puppy-dog pity for him. Anyway, Spike, being the masochist that he is, fell in love with Buffy after the dozens of pummelings she gave him. Don't ask me. So, in order to prove his love, Spike went and got his soul back, making him the second vampire with a soul – and no, I won't talk about the first one. Now Spike was on our side, and so was Robin Wood, new principle of Sunnydale High, who, it turned out, asked to be asigned there in order to find and kill Spike, who had killed Wood's mother, a Slayer, back in the 70s. Did I mention things were complicated? Buffy made Robin drop the revenge kick, saying that she needed Spike in the upcoming fight.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Buffy gathered everyone and we took the fight to The First and it's army of ubervamps. Insert epic battle here. At first, things weren't going that well for us. We were losing people, but then Buffy's plan worked to perfection.

Oh, did I mention my very best friend, Willow, who I've known all my life, had become one of the most powerful witches in the world? Big plus for our side, 'cause she was able to work her witchy magic and turn all potential Slayers into actual Slayers. Buffy's plan. And it sure turned the tide in our favor as all the girls suddenly got juiced with Slayer mojo.

We won, of course, but at a cost. Sunnydale, my hometown, got turned into a crater due to some magic medallion thing that Spike sacrificed himself to use in order to deal the killing blow for our side. My ex-fiance, Anya, died during the battle and we lost a lot of the new Slayers.

That's our story, which leads us here, to a Motel 6, in Santa Barbara, and to my story, which begins with a phone call.