A year, almost to the day of the battle of the Hellmouth, Buffy Summers disappeared. The only two people who knew where she had gone were Willow and Dawn. She didn't want the others, particularly Xander, to talk her out of it.
So it was that she found herself alone by the crater of what had been Sunnydale. She didn't know why, but she felt she needed to come. To make peace. Maybe then the dreams would stop. She doubted it though. After all, the dreams weren't about Sunnydale, they were always about him. About Spike.
She stood there for a long time, thinking about him. She knew in their twisted relationship, she had done a lot of things wrong. But it had all been because she had loved him. In truth, the feelings had been there for awhile, but she had tried to brush them off, to push them away.
Now, after spending a year alone, after he died to save her, to save the world, she would have given just about anything to be able to tell him how she truly felt about him.
Her phone ringing broke the silence. She looked down and saw Willow's name on the caller ID. Since Willow knew where she was, Buffy knew it must be something urgent.
"Hey, Will. What's up?" As soon as Willow spoke, the tone told Buffy something was very wrong.
"Hey, Buff. I know you're...uh...on vacation, but I need to ask a favor. Something big went down in L.A. a week ago, and we haven't been able to contact our sources since. I was hoping you'd go check it out." Buffy agreed, and hung up. With a sigh, she cast one last look at the crater and whispered before leaving.
"Goodbye, Spike." As she walked away from the crater into the fading sunlight, she didn't notice the figure leaning against a tree, badly burnt and wounded.