Buffy Summers awoke with a yawn as she stretched her arms above her head, the early morning sunlight streaming down upon her bed. She glanced at her clock. Ugh. 8:30. She was going to be late for classes once again it appeared. She wondered, as she often did, what time it was it Sunnydale right now.

Well, if there was a Sunnydale, seeing as it had come crashing down into the earth's core over a year earlier. But suppose it hadn't? What would she have been doing at this very moment, with her friends by her side? She contemplated what her friends were up to right now.

Willow and her beloved girlfriend Kennedy were somewhere in South America recruiting new slayers. "Meaning it would be, what, 3:30?", thought the Slayer, scrunching her brow in concentration. If it was in fact 3 a.m., Buffy quickly erased any thoughts of what they might be up to. She could never really grasp the time zone stuff, as she learned after many a scolding when accidentally calling her old watcher Giles in the middle of the night. Giles was back in England (unsurprisingly) teaching (God help us, thought Buffy) Andrew to be a watcher to all the newly emerging slayers they had unleashed a year ago. Buffy laughed at the thought. And Zander. Sweet, lovable, Zander. The last Buffy had heard from him, he was somewhere in the States, but he never stayed anywhere too long.

Buffy, still trying to forgo dragging herself out of bed, turned to her right, unconcerned by the unoccupied space. She had been dating The Immortal, a magical creature of some sort that was greatly admired throughout Rome, but that didn't last long. She ended the relationship not long after some friends, well not really friends, but acquaintances, told her of two very handsome men who had been searching for her, to warn her of The Immortal. The one-tall, dark, handsome, and brooding-was undoubtedly Angel. Though he was, for all she knew, busy running WolfRam and Hart in L.A., it would be all too like him to come spy on her. He was always the jealous and overly protective type, even if their relationship was mostly platonic now. The other-a shorter, but very attractive, bleached blonde- it couldn't be, it was impossible…Buffy stopped herself right there. Spike was dead. Well, more than previously. He was gone, for more than a year now. But she had never truly gotten over it. Not really. For weeks, the image of him about to explode into a column of light, her last words to him, haunted her. And when she had thought she was finally ready to move on, here came this news, bringing back all sorts of buried thoughts and emotions, undoubtedly causing her break up with The Immortal.

Buffy lazily rolled back to her left side. Ugh. 8:40. She wondered it she should even bother. She could keep Dawn out of school for the day and play hooky. Go shopping or see a movie. Dawn had been hinting lately how she barely got to see her sister anymore, despite the fact that they shared an apartment. But, her university here in Rome wasn't exactly as relaxed as U.C. Sunnydale, and her skipping in order to catch a few more zzzs would not be taken kindly.

But, no. What Buffy really wanted to do was talk to her friends. As if someone suddenly read her mind (which, knowing her friends, wasn't all that surprising), the phone rang.

Buffy swung her arm towards her bedside table, groping for the phone. "Hello?" she said groggily once bringing the phone to her ear, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with her other hand.

"Hey Buff!"

Buffy cheered up instantly at the sound of the familiar and cheerful voice and sat up, hugging her knees to her chest. "Hey, Will! I was just thinking about you! How have you been?".

"Umm, well, Brazil's been great! But other than that…", Willow's voice started to fade with uncertainty of how to continue. "We're okay, well no, not really. Something's up."

"Of course," Buffy said, knowing all too well that something was always up, ever since becoming a Slayer at age sixteen. "What's up?".

"Well, I've sort of been having these dreams…"

"Premonitions?", Buffy interrupted the young witch.

"Well, umm, yeah, sort of. But I didn't know what to think of them at first. So I contacted the Coven and Giles. The Coven's seen stuff, too. Something's gonna' happen."

"Well, what is it? Demons? Vamps? Hell gods? Cranky preachers? Evil politicians?" the Slayer joked.

"This is gonna' sound lame but…a hurricane," Willow gulped.

"Wait a minute here," said Buffy confused, "That's natural, not supernatural. Kinda' out of my jurisdiction. Try the Weather Service."

"This isn't natural. It's gonna' be big. And bad," said Willow's nervous voice, "It's gonna' bring chaos. We're talking floods, fires. I'm thinking plagues of locust, but that's just me. And demon involvement is almost certain. People need our help!"

"Yeah, but…"

Thousands will die!," Willow yelled, now defiant in her commands to her reluctant friend, catching Buffy off guard. For a moment, there was dead silence and then, softly, "We need to rally the girls. Get in contact with the military, they'll be there. Colonel Graham."

"Where…?"

"It's coming off the Gulf Stream Currents, hitting England, France, Spain, probably more. We're talking serious damage, nothing like it before. It's not natural for this to happen there."

"When…?"

"In three days," she said abruptly. The seriousness of the situation finally hit like a wave Buffy, as silence sliced between the two friends.

After a few seconds of thinking, Buffy said, "Okay, umm, okay. I'll contact Graham, see if he can get us transportation. Can you contact Giles again, have him assemble the troops?"

"Of course," Willow said in a sigh of relief that her friend had finally taken charge, "These people are gonna' need the strength of the slayer, demons or not."

"Okay, I'll get in contact soon. Bye Will, tell Ken I said 'Hi'".

"Bye Buffy. Oh, and sorry for being all, 'Ahhh'," said Willow finally showing a little of her fun and slightly spastic side that her friends loved her for so much.

Buffy laughed, "It's fine. Bye." She hung up the phone and rubbed her temples, subconsciously attempting to avoid her inevitable headache.

"Well, I guess I'm not going to class after all."

With that, Buffy rolled her eyes and slumped back down into bed in defeat.