DISCLAIMER: Not mine. The characters you recognize are property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy Productions.

SUMMARY: I didn't like the ending of season 7 so this is my take on how it should have happened. This comes from a role playing game that I was in with some friends of mine. I'm talking to them to see if they want to allow me to use their stuff. This picks up with where season 7 should have, in my opinion, ended. Don't worry. Any characters that I kill off at the beginning will make an appearance later in some form or another.

SPOILERS: Buffy up through the final episode and Angel up through the end of season four.


May 21, 2003

I can't believe I'm doing this. I swore that I'd never keep another diary as long as I lived. Not after the burning of the fake diaries. I had tried to refuse when Wesley handed me the notebook and asked me to keep track of where Spike and I went.

Today was the day that I left all of my friends behind. Willow and Kennedy stayed in LA with Angel. Faith stayed in LA too. I don't know where Robin's going when he gets out of the hospital. Xander just disappeared. We think we lost Anya in the battle. Giles was going back to England. He was going to try to rebuild the Watchers' Council, giving them a bit more modern twist. He wanted to make sure that the people running the council knew what Slayers went through.

That's right. I said Slayers. There's a whole bunch of them now. Willow, mighty mojo maker that she is, cast a spell that made every Potential in the world a Slayer. No more Potentials, just real full-fledged Slayers. We needed each and every one of them in order to hold back the tide of Bringers and Uber-vamps. Some died. Some survived. Sunnydale was sucked into a giant hole.

Anyway, just before Spike and I left LA, Wesley handed me this notebook and asked me to "chronicle any adventures had along the way, not to mention any demons that were encountered."

Spike and I left LA and stopped in Barstow. We hadn't traveled far but decided to stop because we were both just totally exhausted by the events of the past few days. I couldn't fall asleep at first. When I finally did, that's when the nightmares came.

"Dawnie, I have to. I'm the only one who can stop this. Bringing me back caused it. My death will end it."

"Buffy, no! Don't leave me! Don't leave me alone again!" My tears were flowing down my face and I couldn't stop them. She was leaving me again.

We were standing in the basement just outside the room where the seal to the Hellmouth was about to open spilling thousands of Uber-vamps into our world. Buffy was determined to blow the seal. She had gotten in touch with Riley who brought his team here. His wife, Sam had died helping us fight. Riley brought in a small nuclear bomb. Buffy planned to detonate it. She was determined that she had to die again. Something somewhere had convinced her that this whole thing was her fault. That if she had just stayed dead, this never would have happened. But her crossing the line to return had weakened the barrier and the First was able to break through.

Not far away, Angel and Spike stood watching. Buffy turned toward them. "Spike, take care of her. Protect her. I don't know what's going to happen after this."

"I swear, Buffy." Spike stepped toward my sister, his own eyes full of tears. "Till the end of the world. Even if that happens to be tonight."

Buffy just nodded. She smiled sadly at him. "This sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

He nodded no longer able to speak. The tears started flowing down Buffy's face. I had never seen my sister cry that hard. She wrapped her arms around Spike. "I love you. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize it."

She pulled back and turned to me. "Dawn, take care of him. He needs you." She walked away from us.

I reached out to try to stop her but Spike grabbed my arm and held me back. He wouldn't let me run in there after her. "NO! Buffy! Don't leave me again!"

"Bit, no. Don't let her last moments be filled with your tears. That would be worse for her than anything else. Let her know that you're proud of her. That you love her."

He turned to run and pulled on my arm forcing me to follow him. I ran with him, wanting nothing more than to see my older sister following us. But, I knew she would never be there again to guard my back. That was Spike's job now.

I bolted upright, screaming. It didn't register at first. I was sitting in the corner of the hotel room, curled into a tight little ball. Tears had left tracks down my face during the course of the nightmare. I didn't know what was going on. The look on Spike's face told me that it had just been a nightmare. That I had just been dreaming. The tears on his face spoke even louder. That was what told me that he knew what I had been dreaming of.

I'll be glad when we get back on the road.