The Potentials and the Scoobies were gathered in the Dining room. Buffy was still rather beat up after her encounter with the über vampire. She waited in the Living room, curled up on the sofa.
"We could make plans, as we always do," Giles said softly, "But the truth is Buffy was our plan. There is no backup."
"Giles, she looks bad." Willow said.
"She does. I'm afraid there may be internal bleeding." Giles admitted.
"What does that mean? Will she…" The witch asked fearfully.
"Die? I don't think so. I don't know."
"But what do we do if she can't fight? If she can't beat this thing?" Willow asked softly.
"We're back at square one." Giles told her.
"And what square would that be, exactly?" This from Xander.
"I'm not sure." The Watcher replied. "The First predates everything we've ever known. Or can know. It's everywhere, it's pure." Giles sighed. "I don't know if we can fight the First." He admitted.
"You're right." Buffy agreed, coming into the room. "We don't know how to fight it. We don't know when it'll come. Can't run, can't hide. Can't pretend it's not the end, cause it is. Something's always been there to try and destroy the world, and we've beaten them back. But we're not dealing with them anymore. We're dealing with why they exist. Evil. The strongest. The First."
"Buffy, I-I know you're tired." Giles broke in, not liking the direction this speech was going.
"I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I'm standing on the Mouth of Hell, and it is going to swallow me whole." Everyone listened with rapt attention as the Slayer spoke, hanging on every word.
"And it'll choke on me." Her voice became more certain as she said this, her eyes glinting with confidence and determination.
"We're not ready? They're. Not. Ready. They think we're just going to wait for the End to come, like we always do. Well I'm done waiting.They want an apocalypse? Oh, we'll give 'em one. Anyone else who wants to run, do it now. Because we just became an army. We just declared war. From now on we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out, and cut their hearts out one by one. Until the First shows it's true face. And I'll kill it myself." She paused a moment, then continued.
"There is only one thing on this Earth more powerful than evil." Her gaze met those of the original gang, Giles, Willow, and Xander.
"And that's us." She saw her friends nod slightly, small smiles on their faces. She scanned the room looking into the faces of the Potentials.
"Any questions?" There were none. The girls started to make their way back into the living room; Dawn, Anya, and Andrew followed along to supervise. Only the core Scoobies remained in the kitchen.
"I can't do this alone." Buffy said softly.
"You're not alone." Xander said.
"Yeah, you've got us!" Willow added with a grin.
"We're a team." Xander told her.
"You're the Slayer, and we're like…the Slayerettes." Buffy smiled, thinking back to the first time Willow had said that. It had been seven years ago. So much had happened since that day. Back then they'd had no idea how their lives would turn out. And despite the many trials they'd faced over the years, their friendship had survived. Through every apocalypse, it had stayed strong.