Author's Note
(warning - spoilers)
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I need to explain some things, I think. While this story comes to an end, there is a lot more that could potentially happen. I purposely left things this way. I know I'm probably evil, but hey. This is fun!
Lilah did die. But, as many of you have pointed out, her contract with W&H lasts a LOT longer than that. And, in the chapter, she saw her own scattered remains. She now has Buffy's remains. Thus the story continues. Lilah is more of a ghost of a shadow of a human being. She's still evil. You can't take THAT out of the girl.
I'm not going to go into great detail on what happens to Giles and the others. That'll be left to your own observations or to yet another sequel which may or may not be written later in the future.
I'll apologize beforehand because I know there's a lot you'll want to know. And most of it isn't revealed. In fact, the epilogue takes us three years into the future in England. We'll even see the return of a beloved character. And we'll finally get to say goodbye to one of my favorite OC's, the Goddess, who has been coming to see Dawn to help her "break into" (for lack of a better term) her new life. Adjust may be a better term. I just felt it a fitting end. And it gives many thanks to the real Irina.
What else... Willow and Tara and Kennedy. I'll leave this up to your own imagination, but I have a feeling you'll get that Willow & Tara are together now and that Kennedy is not. In fact, Kennedy hasn't been mentioned. This is one of those really odd things I'll never tell you about.
Needless to say, this world probably isn't over. It is for now, until it's dusted off and written about again. I like this world. I really do. I'm glad I was able to come up with a good enough reason to create this world.
Killing off Buffy was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I knew from the beginning I had to do it and I had to do it RIGHT. Even Alyson, my faithful beta, told me it was probably a good thing to do. That leaves speculation as the woman who came back the most from the beyond (hell, maybe someday she'll beat both Spike AND Angel combined). Aly even suggested bringing her back as either a goddess or a vampire. That's to be decided at a later date.
The Epilogue, as I've said earlier, takes us into the future, in England, no less. It follows Dawn's life from where she left California behind. It goes through three little events. It's probably going to be regular-sized (as I have yet to finish the new version). The other one was short and very... it didn't fit with the flow of the story. So I scrapped and sent in a rewrite. Needless to say, you'll probably see this note at the same time you see the Epilogue, or late this weekend.
As for the future of the stories, I think I'll be extending a few of the chapters some. I did that for The Slayer's Crusade (mostly for my own benefit). Why, I don't know. But adding 3,000-5,000 words to a story that's already complete may seem silly... but there were things in Aurora Mirabilis that needed to be described first in the original story. I don't know. I just feel like some things could be explained more so I'll pull back a nice document and start writing again.
It's really, really not too bad once you get used to it.
So here lies the end of the Slayer's Crusade series. I really hope you have enjoyed it. Thank you to all who've read it, because I know I must be writing something you like if you continually come back to read. Thank you to the reviewers who actually inspire me in more ways than one (aren't you lucky). Many thanks to Irina for the title of this piece and I really hoped you enjoyed your cameo (I really had fun writing for her! Maybe in the extended version I'll do more goddess-y scenes).
And I have to bow down to my beta readers Aly and Grace. If you noticed how halfway decent the actual battle chapters got, it was because Grace hopped on board and she is a phenominal action girl.
Wow. This is actually as long as a regular chapter. And I have a feeling I'll have more explaining to do once you see the Epilogue because it's probably NOT what you want to read. You want to know what happens, right? You'll just have to speculate some. And I can't give you the ending without giving the entire story away, but it centers around Dawn, right? I'll just add a little something to the end.
If you want to read anything else I've written, I have two current fics out. Heh. One is a fluffy post-Hogwarts crossover with Willow in the centerfold (and these people are actually the same age again). The other is a darkfic centering around the character Ginny.
And I really hope neither one of them gets as long as this did. dies
So here we are at the DEFINITE end to all things. Many thanks to you, my cats, my betas, the little wolves in the backyard which inspire inspiration, my television set that eats DVDs, the ripped-open teddy on my bed, my ugly peach carpet and the whole cheese-less enchilada (I'm allergic to dairy).
So enjoy the epilogue and go back and read through the newly extended chapter 31. Heh.
Thank you and good night.
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