DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They belong to Joss Whedon, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their other respective owners.

A/N ABOUT THIS STORY: As you can tell, I've taken several scenes directly from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings, word-for-word in the dialogue. This is not to rip off any of the real writers because I respect their work and I am not a plagiarist. This is an artistic ploy to put the reader in the mindset of where they are and is essential to the story. The Buffy episodes used were episodes (6.1-2) "Bargaining, 1 and 2" written by Marti Noxon David Fury, (7.17) "Lies My Parents Told Me" written by David Fury Drew Goddard, (7.18) "Dirty Girls" written by Drew Goddard, (7.19) "Empty Places" written by Drew Z. Greenberg, (7.20) "Touched" written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner, (7.21) "End of Days" written by Jane Espenson Doug Petrie and (7.22) "Chosen" written by Joss Whedon. The Angel episode used was "Orpheus" written by Mere Smith. The movies used are, of course, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, written by Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson, based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien (if you didn't know that, you just suck).

5. There Goes My Hero:

Sunnydale, California: 18 Months Later

Buffy marched angrily out of Sunnydale High School Principal Robin Wood's garage as the words that she had just said to him rang in her mind:

'The mission is what matters.'

The mission. What kind of mission was she on anymore? Where in the hell was she going? That was the same question that she had been asking herself since the day she saw Willow, Tara, Anya and Xander in the alleyway that October night over a year ago. The same question she asked herself when Dawn led her to her house and cleaned up her bloodied hands that she had obtained from digging out of her own grave.

Willow was the one that made the spell work. Good 'ol Willow. Hadn't the slightest idea that maybe – just maybe – Buffy might have been better off where she was. Buffy couldn't blame her directly, though, not anymore than the other three.

They missed her. They needed her. They didn't want to let her go. Now, each of them understood that that idea might have tainting their thought process, so the night Willow said to each of them that they were going to bring Buffy back, no one disagreed.

They told no one, of course. Not Giles, not Dawn, not even Spike who spent the whole summer guarding Dawn by day and helping the others slay vampires by night. The thought of Giles and Spike fighting side by side killing vampires made her blood turn even colder.

Giles, Buffy thought. Always loyal Giles. It wasn't even two months after Buffy came back that Giles jumped on a plane to England. She remembered how abandoned she felt when he left, just adding to how crushed she was. That was the night that Tara left Willow because Willow had cast a spell to erase everyone's memory after promising Tara that she wouldn't use anymore magic and claiming that she was in no way addicted to it like Tara suspected.

That was a hard night, Buffy remembered. Willow was only trying to help. They'd found out that Buffy had been in Heaven all along after a sing-and-dance-athon where Buffy narrowly escaped the flames of dance fever. For a little while, though, Buffy had forgotten all about her trauma and pain. But then like everything, it came back, and Buffy and Willow realized that not all pain can be taken away with magic.

Or with pleasure.

Spike, she remembered. Ever since the night she found out that Spike was 'in love' with her, before she had died, she never believed him. He was a creature without a soul. He could never understand what love was. The day she came back, Spike still had the same feelings for her, but Buffy had a new, gloomy outlook on life.

Spike had manipulated her into believing that she was as dirty as he and she slept with him. Part of her knew that it was just as much her fault for being fooled as it was Spike's fault. What was completely her fault was the fact that she continued to sleep with him every time something went wrong in her day, then she'd kick him out like the dirty dog that she saw him to be. And he let her do that, too. After all, he was, for the most part, getting what he wanted. The only thing that she would not do is say that she loved him. That was the one truth that she saw and acknowledged in her relationship. And to that day, she still hasn't said those words. The day she finally said goodbye to Spike, not long after she'd said goodbye to her ex-boyfriend Riley and his new wife, she thought that her life was finally going to get easier.

She thought wrong. Xander and Anya's marriage never happened. He left her at the altar after he realized that it was wrong and what does Anya do? She ditches mortality and reverts to her Vengeance demon ways the first chance she gets. Meanwhile, Dawn went on a kleptomaniac spree for love and affection, which added to the debt that they had to pay. Willow finally did let go of magic, and about the time that she and Tara were about to hook up again, they find Anya and Spike having sex on a table in the Magic Box.

Xander, needless to say, was royally pissed. He went down there with axe in hand, ready to kill Spike once and for all. Buffy couldn't let that happen, despite herself. After she saved his skin, Spike revealed to Xander and Anya the big secret: that Buffy had been sleeping with Spike for the past several months.

This only added insult to Xander's injury and he wouldn't even let Buffy speak. He spent the next several days drowning away his despair in Mr. Jack Daniels. After the secret had been revealed, an also drunken Spike went down to Buffy's house to apologize. She didn't want to hear anything he had to say and before she could understand what was happening, Spike crossed the thickest line of his life. He tried to rape Buffy.

It wasn't premeditated; it wasn't planned to any extent. But it crushed Buffy all the same. She was able to stop him of course, and she didn't kill him, but Spike ran off wishing that she did. Buffy quickly pushed those traumatizing memories out of her mind.

To add to all of this chaos, there was a tiny bad that ended up affecting their lives in a big way. Warren Meers, Jonathan Levinson, and Andrew Tucker formed the in-famous Nerd Trio that was for some reason still unknown to Buffy, hell-bent on destroying her. After Spike's incident in her bathroom, Buffy was angry and ready to take them down for good, but it was Warren that got away. Now, she wished more than anything that she hadn't waited to find him.

Instead, Warren found her after Buffy and Xander forgave each other. Warren shot Buffy in the chest, injuring her, but unknowingly shot Tara in the heart, killing her right in front of Willow. There are no words for the rage that Willow felt, or for the destruction that came afterwards. Willow went full-on magic, turning into something darker and more evil than most of the things that Buffy had faced. She flayed Warren alive and then went after Jonathan and Andrew, eventually trying to destroy the world before Xander found her and told her how much he loved her despite everything. Willow broke down and the world didn't end, much to Buffy's relief.

For the first time since she'd come back, she felt like things were truly going to be better. And they had, for the most part. Willow was no longer addicted to magic, but because of what she did, it was now a part of her. Xander was a successful man in the construction business, though he was not reunited with Anya. She played the Vengeance demon role for a while, but realized that after being mortal for as long as she had been, she could no longer do that. She became a mortal again and had been spending the rest of the year trying to find herself.

Dawn was doing significantly better in school and no longer stole everything she could get her hands on. Her relationship with Buffy had much improved as Buffy took her under her wing and was teaching her the skills of the Slayer trade.

Spike was another story. While Willow was off trying to destroy the world, Spike had done something Buffy in her wildest dreams could never have expected him to do. He went through a painful, dangerous trial and earned his soul. Now there were two vampires with souls in the world, however, this was something that had kind of been… neglected when talking to that other vampire with a soul.

He spent several months in the Sunnydale High School basement, loosing his mind while a minion of evil whispered dirty nothings in his ear constantly. Not a minion of evil, Buffy corrected herself. Evil, itself. That was the Big Bad. The First Evil. The thing that made every other foe that she has faced possible. The First is an incorporeal being that can look and sound like any dead person it wants to. It wants to raise an army to take over the world and become corporeal. It's the same thing that four years ago had tried to convince Angel to kill himself after he had come back from hell.

So far, it had been successful in its game plan: Get assassins, called Bringers, to kill girls that might one day be called to be the Slayer, called Potentials, and slowly eliminate the Slayer line.

It tried to get Spike to become a killer, but he fought it and regained his sanity. Now no one's really sure where he stands, but Buffy believed in her heart that he could be a good man. But some people… like Robin Wood and Giles… didn't really agree with her.

Giles had figured out what was going on shortly after the Watchers Council had been destroyed and spent his time gathering Potential Slayers and brought them to Sunnydale. About thirty girls from all over the world were now living in Buffy's house, and only twenty of them spoke English. They had been training them for the upcoming battle, but it had been very hard. They were inexperienced fighters who were weak and nothing more than children in Buffy's eyes. But Giles was so sure that they could be trained.

Just like Giles was so sure that Spike was and always would be a killer. Robin Wood, the Principal and Buffy's boss, believed just that. He was the thirty-year-old son of a Slayer who Spike killed in the 1970s, Nikki Wood. Robin and Giles plotted killing Spike while Buffy had her back turned, deliberately betraying her. Giles was going to take Buffy out patrolling while Spike was locked in Robin's garage for him to finally take out his anger.

The plan didn't work. Spike nearly killed Robin, but let him live because he had killed his mom. Buffy showed up just as Spike was strolling away and told Robin that she didn't have time for his vendettas. The mission is what mattered.

But was all of her pain worth the mission? The world had changed since the day Buffy came back to life. And so had Buffy.

She stomped up the steps to her house and entered to see the foyer littered with sleeping bags as it always was. She marched up the stairs and heard footsteps behind her. When she reached the top, she looked down to see Giles following her.

He should have stayed in England, she thought, fuming with rage.

"What happened?" Giles asked.

"I got there just as it was ending," Buffy declared as she swallowed hard.

Giles's face softened with compassion, making Buffy even angrier, "I'm sorry, Buffy. You know this is how it is supposed—"

"Spike's alive," Buffy cut him off as she glared at him. "Wood failed." Giles stared at her in surprise as Buffy turned away and walked towards her room.

"This doesn't change anything," he sternly answered. "What I said before—"

"Means nothing to me still," Buffy declared as she turned towards him. He looked at her as if she'd slapped him as she slowly shut her bedroom door on his face, adding, "You know, I think you've taught me everything I need to know."

The door slammed with finality.

Car horns honked noisily and a cold wind blew through a dark, damp alley in the middle of the night. A thick rat scrambled through old garbage as its tiny nose twitched with alarm. A low rumble shook the ground. The rat suddenly scurried away in fear.

Lightning flashed as a ball of white light opened in the middle of the alley beside a dumpster. A fierce wind blew hard as a swirling disc of glowing, bluish-white clouds appeared in the alleyway and seven people emerged from the light.

First Aragorn. Then Legolas and Gimli. Then the hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin.

The New Fellowship emerged from the portal as it closed behind them, and they gazed around their new world.

...Message From The Author...

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