Chapter 1:
Buffy strolled silently through the cemetery, feeling extremely bored. "There's always Spike." Buffy told herself. "No," she thought. "Spike equals badness."
But isn't that what she wanted? The "badness" that Spike embodied? Thankfully, Buffy heard a snap coming from a nearby mausoleum and decided to divert her attention to the less self-deflating danger.
"Great," Buffy thought. "Probably the sound of a giant slayer-killing demon snapping an innocent's neck. Must be my lucky day." Buffy wandered over to the small crypt and peered in through a small window. There were about 7 vamps and one D.O.A. who Buffy could swear used to be the T.A. for the Pop Culture class she tried to get into. At least she was before the suck-fest. "Well," Buffy thought. "I'm in a nice, suicidal mood. I can take them." The vamps were pretty pre-occupied with the catch-of-the-day and didn't notice her presence until the first among them was already dust. The vamps had mixed reaction as two of the fiends bolted straight away while the other four stayed and decided to fight. "I guess four-to-one is better than seven," she said smugly.
Just as Buffy was about to lunge at one of the vamps that had encircled her, she heard the unexpected, yet unmistakable sound of a vamp being dusted and recognized a not totally welcome voice. "Not so fast luv'", the bleached vampire said smartly. "Make it two against three."
Buffy rolled her eyes, trying to show some form of annoyance, even when she knew she was feeling none. "Fine Spike," she said. "Let's get this over with." She moved towards the first vamp and launched a kick at its temple, landing her booted-foot square on the target. The vamp snarled in retaliation and threw a punch at her groin, connecting solidly. Buffy crouched down low and swept the creature off its feet, quickly driving the stake through its heart as it hit the ground. She turned around to find only one vamp left, on the retreat from Spike. Buffy desperately wanted to get this over with, so to speed things up she took the advantage and staked the vamp from behind, looking through the collapsing ashes into Spike's eyes.
She found desire when she looked into his eyes, and she knew what he wanted. This wasn't real. It wasn't real love or caring, just passion. At least that is what she told herself. Maybe she just wanted it to be passion, and nothing more. Spike didn't give her a chance to think about this as they took each other up in a kiss. The same sickening event that made Buffy so disgusted had happened again. Just as it always had been with the two, Buffy just couldn't resist Spike. Not for his love, but for the emotion he made her feel.
Xander stalked through the columns of graves, looking for a David Toten who had suffered "extreme neck trauma". He wasn't worried that this vampire would take him down, but he still longed that he had some company by his side so that the cemetery wouldn't feel so empty. "Hey Xand, wait up," an enthusiastic voice called from behind, so loud he heard the undead turn over in their graves. Be careful what you wish for, he grumbled to himself. Willow and Anya walked carelessly over mounds of dirt that served as grave-plots, completely destroying any hope he had to be stealthy.
"Will, Ahn, I'm trying to be stealthy, secret-agent guy here and you're messing up the Xander mojo! Can you try to keep in down?"
"Fine, fine," Anya said in an exasperating tone. "Just stay alive, because if you die before the wedding, believe you me I will make sure you end up in a Hell dimension planning seating charts for all eternity."
"Ladies and gentlemen, my wife-to-be," Xander said with a mocking clapping of his hands. "Let's give her a round of applause. Now if you two don't mind, Buffy asked us to take a swing around the cemetery while she took the other fields of dead so she could get home to Dawn early. Is it just me, or does she seem a little distracted to you guys? She looks a little worn around the edges."
"I guess slingin' burgers at the Doublemeat Palace has that kind of affect on a girl huh?" Willow said with a smile. The Wicca had gone a while without any magick and she intended to keep it that way. She reached into her bag and took out a bottle of water, a new obsession she had picked up while trying not to think about magics.
"Well things are dead here, literally, and I have far better things to be doing with my time," Anya said with a sigh. "I still have to check the guest list, make sure the caterer has the correct orders, and double-check that the florist is bringing tiger-lilies and daisies."
"Yeah, she's right Xand," Willow stated. "We better head back and see if Buffy got home yet. I don't like leaving Dawn alone after everything that's gone on. She really seemed a little shaken up after Buffy went all Invisible Gal on us."
"With our luck, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Knowing those three nerds, they're aiming to sink the whole ship."
"Are you kidding me!?!" Jonathan hurled back. "Batman is just some old rich dude that fights crime using gadgets and crap that he uses his big piles of money to get. He doesn't even have any superpowers! He's lamer than you are dweeb-o!"
"Take that back, Jerk-athan!"
"Fine, I do take it back. YOU'RE LAMER THAN HE IS!!" Apparently Andrew couldn't take anymore, as he rushed at Jonathan and tried to get him in a headlock, but neither could get an advantage.
"Would you two both shut up!" a voice called from the other side of Warren's basement, where they were holding up because of their fear of the Slayer. Warren stalked out of the shadows of the underground room and glared out at the two nerds. "I swear you two are like a couple of five- year-olds. Just cut it, I almost have the launcher ready, so sit still and be quiet while daddy works. And by the way, Spawn could kick both their asses, so argument settled."
Buffy rounded the corner to her house on Revello Drive and began to cry. She cried for everything. She cried for her mother: gone for over a year; for herself and her abusive - though not to her - relationship with what she called a "filthy" vampire; and for her whole life, seemingly so screwed up it was beyond repair. Gone were the days where she kept nothing hidden from her friends. They had their own lives and were actually happy. She was miserable and she didn't know how to stop it.
Well, of course she knew how to stop it, but one thing kept her on this earth. Dawn. She was one thing that she had done marginally right. She had raised her when her mother died, and she was turning out well. But was that enough? Things were bad now. Really bad. In the sense of "house- about-to-be-repossessed-and-little-sister-taken-away" bad. She could end it all so easily. She didn't even have to do it intentionally. She could just slip up during a patrol or freeze up in the middle of a fight. She wanted to, but she couldn't. She couldn't leave Dawn in this horrible place, just like she couldn't stop this thing she had with Spike. She needed to protect her even if it meant enduring this world that was just too hard and solid. She needed to stay for... Out of nowhere, a vamp tackled her from behind and she went down hard. She rolled back onto her feet and launched a roundhouse at the undead's head. It ducked, but she already anticipated the move and followed up with another kick that landed a cracking blow against its temple. It turned tail and ran back the direction she had come and Buffy gave chase. It got about 7 yards before she launched herself into its back connecting her shoulder with its spine. They sized each other up for a few seconds and Buffy noticed it still had dirt on its suit and felt some very small measure of relief. "Great." She thought. "A newbie." It came at her punching wildly and she easily ducked the blows, kicking it hard in its lower back as it rushed by.
"Just one slip up...." the thought kept echoing through her mind. "No," she thought. "Dawn needs me." She drew her stake and walked toward the crouching creature. It threw another wild punch, and as she ducked, she plunged the wooden weapon into the fiend's heart. It looked pitiful as it collapsed into nothingness in front of her. She was actually jealous of the soul that once resided in the shell that was her latest staking. It didn't have to deal with the nasties and "Big-Bads" of this world. She wanted that. She wanted that sweet release that gave her the right to leave behind the guilt she felt about wanting to leave her friends and family to fend for themselves.
She wanted it, yet she knew she would never have it. In her moment of revelation, her thoughts were interrupted by a shriek from her house. Dawn she thought silently. She broke into a sprint as she overtook the sidewalk that led to her home. She got to the front walk and stopped dead in her tracks. As she saw what was going on, she found herself grasping for words. There stood a man and woman talking to Dawn, just walking out the front door, and at least one of the pair Buffy recognized on sight.
"Oh my God!" Dawn shrieked. "Dad!" She lunged into Hank Summers's arms and relished the embrace of the man she had not seen in so many years. Hank Summers swung her around in his arms and turned to face his eldest daughter.
"Buffy! There you are!" He said enthusiastically. "I like you both to meet Marcela." He motioned to the tanned and obviously implanted woman who stood next to him. "Guess what? We're getting married!"