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Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke
Spoilers: AU Buffy after season 5 and pre-Supernatural series
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The battle against the First had been devastating, for both the Scoobies and the town of Sunnydale. They had expected something big to happen once they won, but not the entire town becoming a sinkhole. It wasn't until they were all back on the bus did they realize they had no place to go. Fortunately, the rest of the world was unharmed and they all managed to find a cheap motel to sleep and discuss their next move.
"So we've got twenty-five slayers sleeping off their first apocalyptic battle," Buffy started, "Where do we go?"
Of course, they went into the Hellmouth with more slayers than that, but she wasn't about to dwell on that. They had many things to do before she would allow herself to mourn for the fallen slayers and the others.
"Giles and I were talking this morning," Sam spoke. Looking to the older man for confirmation, Sam stood. "It's not just the slayers here we need to take of; Willow activated every potential in this world."
Blushing, Willow avoided everyone's eyes, in an attempt to go unnoticed, which was difficult as her hair was streaked with white. It hadn't managed to fade away yet.
"They're gonna need training," he continued. "There's no way they couldn't have noticed their abilities by now and if we don't do something…"
"They'll end like Faith," Anya spoke, while everyone else cringed as Faith was in the room.
"It's cool," Faith shrugged. She knew about Anya's bluntness and could respect that. She didn't have a single thought about Andrew not having grown a pair and saving Anya from a bringer. Nope, not at all.
"Sam's right," Xander nodded, "But where, there's no Hellmouth to give the girls a crash course in surviving for their lives."
"But there is," Dawn reminded. "Giles was telling us about it when we were looking at Sunnydale."
"I was also telling Faith to push Giles into for mentioning it," Willow groaned. "Can't we ever get a break?"
"If we took a break, a slayer might go rogue and start breaking people," Xander shook his head.
"Fine, be all right and with the making of the sense," Willow huffed. "So we go to Cleveland and set up shop?"
"Yea, get jobs, buy some property for the slayers to live and kick some butt," Buffy shrugged. "Done and done, what's next?"
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Giles started to speak, as no one seemed to realize the job they had in front of them, when Sam stopped him and spoke, instead.
"I don't think everyone here understands the enormity of the situation here. There are billions of people on this Earth and a small percent of the female population was just activated. That small percent could still be a large number."
"And you want them all in Cleveland?" Giles cut in. "The local populous would surely notice, what I'm assuming to be, thousands of young women running around with enhanced abilities."
"This is more than just setting up houses in Cleveland. These slayers won't all be American, nor will they all speak English," Sam continued. "I think we need to model this after the old Council."
"You lost me when said nor and now I think I lost my hearing because you did not just say following the Council in their slimy footsteps!"
This came from Buffy, who, besides Giles and Faith, had the worst experience when dealing with the Council.
"He doesn't mean how they treat the slayer, Buffy," Giles reassured her. "The Council in England should be rebuilt, while another should be built in Cleveland by the other Hellmouth's in the world.
"Other Hellmouth's?" Dawn squeaked.
"There's more than just the two, Dawnie," Willow offered a weak smile. "They're weaker, but they'll need patrolling, especially since we have womanpower."
"Where's all this money coming from?" Faith asked. "You're talking about trainin' all these slayers, but you're gonna need a place, equipment, teachers, Watcher's."
"We'll get it," Sam brushed it off. "Giles still have some contacts that survived the Council's explosion."
"You all know what this means right?" Xander asked. At their silence, "The Scoobies have just gone global."
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How do you start a talk about all the hurt that you went through?
Buffy wasn't sure since for the past five minutes there was only silence. Giles, Willow, Xander and herself were holed up in Giles's room and they weren't going to leave until the air was cleared. Too bad that wasn't happening at all.
The first step to forgiveness? Admitting fault.
"I let you guys down, from the beginning, I should have done something, said something, but I didn't," Buffy spoke, looking down at her hands in her lap.
"You would have stopped us from helping you?" Willow asked, a little hurt.
"No, that's not what I meant. I wouldn't be here if you guys didn't help me. I meant, I should have, I dunno, gotten Giles to train you and Xander. And found someone to help with your magic, but I didn't."
"You're not completely at fault with that, Buffy," Giles sighed. "I could just as easily included you two, but I didn't."
"We could have said something, too," Xander shrugged. "Too late to think about it now."
"Well, when everything is set up, you're getting that training," Buffy ordered. After calming a bit, she touched on the most recent issue. "These past few weeks, I forgot that not everyone was a slayer. I shouldn't have expected blind obedience."
"But you should have," Willow frowned, "I mean, expect something from us. I mean, sure, not every plan went off smoothly these past seven years, but we've always won. We shouldn't have attacked you like that."
"Just seeing you be cold about the potentials, it wasn't my Buffster, but something else," Xander pointed out.
"It was a war, I didn't know how to be myself," she sighed. "The trust between us stopped somewhere. I don't care where, but I want it back."
"From everyone?" Giles asked. He never forgot that night, the night he and Robin planned to get rid of Spike and he knew Buffy never would either. They might never be at the level of trust they once had, but they could something as good if only the past was kept there.
"From everyone," Buffy nodded, smiling at her Watcher.
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"What do you think they're doing?" Dawn asked. She was laying on bed, watching television, with Faith beside her on the other bed and Sam at the desk, making notes and planning their next step. He was really good for that; a mini-Giles, you might say.
"Hashin' it out," Faith answered. "Seven years of friendship and seven years of a growing mistrust."
"Think they'll fix it?" Dawn asked, hopeful. She and Buffy had already discussed their issues. They were okay, on their way to perfect, but it would take a little more time.
"They're the Scoobies, remember," Sam said as he kept writing.
"They've gotta work together, anyway," Faith threw in.
"Guess you're right. What else could you possibly be writing over there, Sam?"
Standing up from her bed, Faith walked over to the desk and plucked the papers right out of Sam's hands, "Building plans, Hellmouth locations, potential classes for the slayers, classes for the Watcher's and information about Wolfram & Hart. Looks like Sammy boy's been busy."
Shrugging, he took the papers back, "Hellmouths in Cleveland, Africa, Asia and Australia and they're slowly gaining power, Cleveland more so. We need to access the Council's accounts to start building bases near each location. Of course, we'll need a number of how many slayers there are to start their training before sending them off."
"There's no way to tell, right?"
"I think Willow knows, she just ain't sayin'," Faith answered Dawn.
"You think so, too?" Sam asked, happy not being the only one to think so.
"She tapped into the connection between the weapon and the slayers, she has to know. She probably knows a lot more then she's lettin' on," Faith shrugged.
"I'll talk to her," Sam sighed. "We figure out a number, get the girls dispersed, start training them."
"So why the Wolfram & Hart notes?" Dawn asked. "Yea, Angel's gone over to the dark side with that one, but what are you going to do?"
"Made a note to keep an eye on them," Sam lied, well, a half-truth. He had every intention of making sure Angel and his friends kept fighting the good fight, but he was also thinking about joining them. He just wasn't sure how to break it to everyone else.
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"Willow?"
Squeaking, the red head turned away from the motel room door to find Sam looking at her. Hopefully, he wouldn't make the connection that the room belonged to Kennedy and she had just… well, you know, with her.
"Something wrong?" she spoke fast.
"I was hoping we could talk."
"Oh," she straightened up, "What about?"
"The awakening spell," he answered as they walked back to her room. "I think you know more about it than you're telling us."
Pausing, she nodded. "I do know how many slayers there are, or at least, a good estimate. I really can feel them, each and every single one, if I concentrate."
"No one is in trouble, yet?"
"A few broken doors in a few places, but no one has abused their power yet. The potentials who didn't manage to come to Sunnydale or get killed by the bringers have already started patrolling."
"Who… Who did you focus the spell on?"
"You caught that, huh?" Willow smiled.
"When you explained the spell day before we fought, I had heard it. You had either Buffy or Faith to use as the focus."
"It's obvious who I used, right?" Willow asked.
"To most, no. You used them both. While you and Faith still have your history and probably always will, you knew it paled in comparison to the fate of the world," he answered. "You did what you had to do to make sure the world kept on going."
"Just don't tell Faith that."
Laughing, "I won't."
"Goodnight, Sam."
"Goodnight, Willow."
Turning to head back to his shared room with Xander, Sam couldn't take the smile off his face. Tomorrow was going to be a good day.
…If only he knew.
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"You're leaving us! And for Wolfram & Hart!" Buffy all but screamed.
Sam had called another Scooby meeting and while they all thought he had more ideas for Council plans, they were definitely surprised by his wanting to leave.
"I'm not leaving you," Sam shook his head. "We're going to need more than Council headquarters near the Hellmouth's. If slayers take up residence in major cities, they'll need a place to live. Los Angeles would need something like that. I can help set those up and still work with Angel."
"But, Wolfram & Hart…" Dawn spoke.
"Yes, they're evil, but I really don't think Angel took over the company to be evil. His idea of wanting to take it down from the inside is, well it's out there, but I want to help."
"Buffy, you two share genes, and you know how stubborn you are," Willow reminded the slayer. She wasn't happy about it, either, but knew Sam was going to go either way.
"You'll keep an eye on Angel, correct?" Giles asked.
"Everything will be fine," Sam reassured them. "And it's not like I can't come back and help out."
"Not if Dead Boy's hogging you," Xander spat out.
"What did Dean say about this?" Buffy asked, ignoring Xander's nickname for her ex.
"He, uh, he doesn't know. Well, I mean, he knows I'm going to be working with Angel, but he doesn't know about Wolfram & Hart or that Angel is a vampire."
"Lovely, so I guess that's our job?"
"Just add that to list of things Sam already has planned out for the Council," Dawn added.
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I couldn't find out what the population in 2003 was, so, sorry 'bout that.
And I know I usually update three chapters at a time, but I wanted to give you this one because it's sort of a bridging chapter between Buffy as The slayer to Buffy as A slayer, y'know? Well, not including Faith because the sentence wouldn't have worked. ;) So, no, I'm not stuck, I just wanted to do one chapter!
And hey, it was a much longer chapter than I usually do for this story. Next up, Dean gets his own set of three chapters an update!