Disclaimer: Only the plot is mine; most of the characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc.

Author's Note: Aside from the prologue, this fic is set just over a year after the finale, 'Chosen'. Obviously, the prologue doesn't really set the story or anything but Chapter One will be up really soon… stick with it! ;)

Prologue

Each of them stood in front of the massive crater, the air still thick and cloudy with dust. Their entire world had just changed; everything would be different from now onwards. They had all just witnessed the entirety of Sunnydale crumbling away into the Hellmouth and sealing it forever. Sunnydale; some of them had lived there for their entire lives, some only a few years or months but it was still their home and now it was gone. They were all grieving, they had all lost someone or something in the final battle and now it was time to sit back and think about what had happened and what was going to happen next for all of them.

Buffy stared out at the vast emptiness that had been her home for so long, her heart felt heavy and she fought to ignore the intense pain from the stab wound in her side. It was all gone now, taking Spike down with it. She sighed quietly as she thought back to that look in his eyes as they said their final goodbye, that deep sadness as he refused to believe she loved him. She did love him, maybe not as deeply or as truly or as fully as he loved her but it was there all the same. She wished she could have made him come with her but he was resigned to his fate, looking back she realised that she knew what would happen to him. She knew that one of them had to make a sacrifice and Spike would never have let it be her. She only wished that she had been able to feel his soul before she left him forever.

Willow looked out over the devastation but could not feel sadness, she tried to feel the loss of Anya and Spike and the young girls she had come to know well but she could not find it. Instead, she was overwhelmed with power and joy. She could feel each and every girl becoming a Slayer, feel their growing power. It was an overpowering feeling, every single Slayer on the planet was rising in her mind and their power was stretching out across the world, tipping the balance. She could feel the Earth already growing into the barren void that had been the Hellmouth; feel its gratitude at the destruction of its evil.

Xander stood beside her, not mourning the loss of Sunnydale but Anya. He still hadn't accepted the fact that she was gone, that she could never come back. A thousand thoughts swimming in his mind; wishing he had never left her at the altar, hoping she knew how he felt at the end. Thinking of the last time they had made love, not from fear or doubt but from the simple desire of wanting to feel her flesh again, taste her skin. Something he could never do now no matter how many times he apologised. She had died saving Andrew's life and the angry part of him wanted to know why she had to die when he was so useless to them, a puppet of evil at the beginning then diminishing to another thorn in their side. The logical side soon took over, celebrated her sacrifice. He smiled sadly as he realised that in her final moments, Anya had finally been a true human.

Dawn looked across the crater to the horizon and secretly cursed Spike for abandoning her. She felt that she had taken him for granted, always assumed he was going to be there for her, even if he couldn't be there for Buffy. She sighed as she realised that he hadn't really abandoned her, she was just feeling selfish because she knew how much she was going to miss him. Spike had made the ultimate sacrifice and hadn't he saved the world for her and everyone else? She just couldn't see a way forward, she couldn't imagine her life without him in it. She didn't want to.

Giles stood with the only family he knew around him and wondered if he could ever apologise to Buffy for not trusting her decisions over Spike, he wondered if he would ever stop feeling so guilty for arranging his murder, particularly now he knew what a large part he would play in the end. He looked across at Buffy and thought about all the other Slayers. With no Council, he and Wesley were the only Watchers left with an army of girls in their charge. It seemed as though his job with Buffy had ended so another could begin.

Faith never thought she could feel so accepted. She was standing amidst the few people she had really hurt and they had admitted her back into the gang with very little tension. She smiled as she thought; it only took the end of the world. She looked back at the bus, smiling at the thought of the promise she had made to Wood; a real date, a real chance. People were talking but nobody was really listening.

"What do you think we should do, Buffy?" asked Willow.

"Yeah, you're not the one and only chosen anymore. Gotta live like a person, how's that feel?" said Faith, looking at Buffy.

"Yeah Buffy," said Dawn. "What are we gonna do now?"

Buffy smiled to herself, her life was her own again. Her sacred duty had been passed on to all the others who were destined to receive it; she was no longer alone. She thought about Dawn's question and smiled again as she realised she finally had a choice.