"Buffy, we aren't going to see dad are we?" Dawn was practically running to keep up with her sister.

"No, dad's like as far away from us as possible, like Russia. Wait, is there anything further away than Russia?" Buffy stopped to let her little sister catch up.

"From here? You might want to try Spain, or England, they are way further than Russia."

"Whatever, no Dawn, we aren't going to see dad, we're going to buy shoes. New shoes, cos we saved the world, and are entitled to shoes."

"Uh, okay. What's the real reason we're out here?"

"Shoes! Do I need to spell it out, or give you a definition?"

"Buffy, I'm your sister, I know you, something is bothering you."

The girls sat down on a bench in the park they were cutting through.

"Oh Dawn, its so many tihngs. I feel like everyone is keeping something from me, I feel guilty that Spike & Anya had to die, not to mention all the girls we lost. I'm lost again. I mean before I felt lost cos I was all alone, now I feel lost because I'm not alone, but in a way I still am. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, I get that. Did you get any sleep?"

"Nightmares. Well not so much nightmares, as reliving what happened. It just kept repeating over and over again, and sometimes I could save him, sometimes we burned up together, sometimes I let Angel die, god those were the worst of all of them. But in some of them he would look up at me with those big blue eyes, and not say a word, but I knew he was okay, like he was in heaven, at peace, like I once was."

"I already miss him too, as much as I gave him crap, I did like Spike, he was a good person."

"Yeah, that's why it hurts so much. He gave me the courage and the strength to finish the hell mouth off, and what's his reward? Death. See Dawn, death really is my gift."

"No, its not like that, he chose to be there, just like the rest of us.We all knew we might die, but we didn't care, we knew we had to do it."

"It's just sick because two of the only people who really enjoyed this life, are dead."

"Well I guess life and death aren't fair." Dawn reached out and held Buffy's hand, squeezing it, letting her sister know she understood.

"Dawn, I screwed up." Buffy's eyes started to well up with tears, tears she didn't think she still had, "I told him the truth, but it was too late, and he didn't trust it." She started crying, Dawn held her, and stroked her hair, soothing her. The two of them sat there like that for a while, waiting for life to begin again.


"What's taking so long? This shouldn't be taking this long, should it?" Fred was pacing back and forth across the foyer.

"I don't know, all this magic and stuff, if you asked me, if there isn't a way to fix it by kicking the crap out of something, maybe it ain't broke." Gunn laughed.

"You're not funny." Faith rolled her eyes.

Willow and Spike came down the stairs.

"And now for my next trick, the great Willini will make bunnies come out of your ears!"

"She can do that?" Gunn looked at Faith.

"No silly, I'm just saying, tada! It worked! And I didn't go evil or anything!"

Angel followed behind them, accompanied by an unfamiliar man. Angel seemed to know him, and they were silently chatting.

"So who's the new face?" Faith sat up straight, looking defensive.

"Whoa pussycat, calm down, I'm not here to rattle your cage doors."

"What?"

"Guys, this is Whistler. He's an old friend of mine."

"Does he whistle?" Lorne asked.

"Strangely, I've never mastered the skill." Whistler sat on one of the chairs. Still dressed like a brat pack reject, Angel wondered if some demons were just trapped in an era.

Willow and Spike sat on one of the couches, "So do you want to run that by me again mate?" Spike asked.

"Alright, see I got this gig, I work for The Powers. They send me out when something big needs to be taken care of."

"Not that part."

"Oh, right. See Spike here has been chosen. Actually you were chosen a long time ago, but thats besides the point. Every once in a while The Powers can collectively impact the human dimension, either through taking advantage of a situation that presents itself, or through fulfilling prophecies. Angel here, well he was an advantageous situation waiting to happen, so The Powers chose him as a champion. Spike here, was sort of the same thing. See man, like the last 4 years of your unlife, were directed in a sense by a mix of prophecy and taking advantages of your weaknesses. Few vampires retain the ability to love, actually the statistics are amazing on this, but I digress. Your capacity made you an ideal candidate, and they had been watching you since the beginning, deciding when you would be needed most." Whistler shifted in the chair, "The thing with the first evil, well we didn't see it coming. Then again we didn't see Sabrina over here finding an urn of Osiris on eBay. The Powers aren't perfect."

"Great, again with this being my fault!" Willow looked visibly disraught.

"No honey, its only part of what you did. The rest was his fault." He pointed at Spike.

"So did we bring me back as a scapegoat then? Is that what this is, bloody figures."

"No, bringing back Buffy, sweet girl by the way, she set events in motion, most notably pushing blondie over there to get a soul. That's where the disbalance happened. He tilted the scales of good and evil. Evil got mad, and well we all know the outcome."

"But I thought you had chosen him for something."

"Oh, we did, but we thought it was further in the future, we weren't expecting him to take things into his hands so quickly, again it's Sabrina's fault that Buffy came back."

"Her name is Willow you stupid bint."

"Right, Willow, sort of pushed the envelope. But then the whole Jasmine thing happened here in L.A. and well the Powers got sidetracked, and the Chosen one accidentally got killed. The Chosen one being Spike. They did see that coming, and so had the amulet transfered to Angel's possession, believing Angel would bear it, and Spike would survive."

"Great, as if my week hasn't been bad enough, now you're telling me the Powers planned on me dying?" Angel's defenses were on high alert.

"Calm down Peaches, I'm sure they'd have brought you back like they did me."

"Yeah, that was the plan." Whistler covered the fact that this was farthest from the truth. "So Spike dies, and the Powers still need him, thus they bring him back, and set things into motion to get him here. Did you really think that car had come from Sunnydale's direction? The Powers, well they made sure you got the ride you needed."

"But the amulet came from Wolfram & Hart." Fred said.

"The Powers have stock in Wolfram & Hart, they pulled some strings."

"But Wolfran & Hart are evil, the Powers aren't evil."

"No they aren't evil, but hey, keep your friends close, your enemies closer right?"

"But why is he human?" Willow asked.

"He isn't." Angel announced.

"You just can't stand that maybe I was chosen for something can you?" Spike was getting angry.

"No, I saw your hand heal, right in front of my eyes, you burned it on your lighter, but it healed in minutes."

"He's not human, but not demon either. He's more human than not, but the Powers wanted insurance that he would be able to carry on, so they juiced him up a bit."

"So I suppose I have a mission or something? That's what you still need to explain, I'd like to know what I didn't sign up for."

"No mission, just a job. The connection between the Powers and their Champion have been severed. We knew eventually this would happen, and so they chose someone who already knew the champion, but who was a bit stronger to carry her burden."

"Brilliant, I'm a sodding pack mule. Who's the Champion?"

"Well it's Angel of course."

"But you were counting on him dying!"

"Not necessarily, its complicated, as situations change destiny's get readjusted, the Powers like to roll with the punches. Cordelia was only a temporary situation, as her powers were passed to her accidentally by Doyle, so her destiny was readjusted."

"It sounds like a sick game of Risk." Fred said under her breath.

"You planned on this happening to her?" Angel was mad.

"Hey! Don't kill the messenger! She's human, we did our best to pump her up to make her be able to tolerate the visions, hell we made her a higher power! But she was corrupted, as most humans are. Eventually she would have died, this is actually good for her, if she wakes up, she'll be a normal human again."

"But the scroll of Aberjian states that the vampire with a soul will die, we assumed it meant he had to be made human to do so."

"He will die, he's not unkillable, he just has healing qualities that should he get injured or knocked into a coma, he'll recover in a fraction of the time it takes for a human. He'll age, and die, just not as fast as a human would. Again, the Powers have a thing about insuring their investment."

"What if I don't want to do this?"

"Then we'll send you back to the pits of Hell, you didn't think they sent creatures like you to heavenly dimensions just because you got a soul?"

Both Angel and Spike sighed in resignation.

"Who's going to hell? I swear I leave for 5 minutes and already there's more talk of hell." Xander and Andrew walked down the stairs into the foyer. "What? Wait, um, he's not supposed to be here!" As the color drained from his face, Xander pointed at Spike.

"Holy Bloomin' Onions Batman!" Andrew ran across the room and threw himself at Spike.

"Bloody hell, get off me you wanker!" Spike pushed the boy off of him.

"Spike! I knew you weren't dead! Wow, this is so cool. This reminds me of issue number 15 of..." Andrew began.

"Shut up Andrew!" Willow and Xander yelled in unison.

Xander fell into a chair. "Where is Buffy?"

"B doesn't exactly know yet. Her and Dawn are out seeing their Pop or something." Faith explained.

"The Bit made it?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, she's fine." Willow said.

"Where's Anya, she'd get a real kick out of this."

"Anya's dead." Xander looked down as he said it.

"She saved my life!" Andrew gushed.

"Well for what its worth, she was one hell of a woman."

"From you, its not worth much, but thanks." Xander glared at Spike. "So what's the deal here?"

The group filled Xander and Andrew in on what had happened, and that Spike had been returned to them by the Powers to carry Cordelia's visions. Then Whistler left, promising to return when he knew more. Afterwards, they ate some lunch. Giles and Wesley made arrangements for the new Slayers to return to their homes for a month. Kennedy objected, but eventually decided it would be nice to see her parents and maybe head down to the Hamptons for a week or two. Some of the girls even caught buses that afternoon. By mid-afternoon the lobby of the hotel was empty, most of the prior occupants having finally lost all energy and resigning themselves to sleep, or at least trying to absorb the afternoons events. By the time Buffy and Dawn returned, shopping bags in one hand, iced mochas in the other, the place seemed near abandoned. Dawn headed up to her room, Buffy did the same, both of them needed a nap themselves.

Afternoon faded to night, and the hotel was still and silent, but things wouldn't remain this way forever.