Act I

The clink of the metal bells hanging from the door handle against the glass brought the room into sharp contrast. It was bright, you couldn't make out what was beyond the shaded windows, but it seemed like daylight. Buffy stood in the entryway of a diner, with green booths, and dark wood accents. There was a sign reading "Please Be Seated" just in front of her, off to one side, as she blinked. With a sigh, she sat down at an empty booth.

A woman with dark hair in a blue and red waitress outfit comes to the table, and smiles. "What can I get you?"

Buffy looks at her, confused. "Where am I?"

"No place in particular, toots. It's just a construct where people come to take some downtime. Catch up on events, gossip about the goings on in the universe, you know."

"Is this hell?"

"Hell, no. If you need a name, you can call this place the Astral Diner. You want anything?"

Buffy sighed, shaking her head. "A coke, I guess."

The woman walked behind the counter, and a few minutes later came back with the soda. "You ok, kiddo?"

"Last thing I remember…I was on a bus. Leaving town. Because…Angel…"

"Had to be sent to hell in order to save the world. You made the front page, dearie. Good copy. Take a break. The world will keep turning without you."

"Front page?" Buffy looked puzzled. And the waitress walked over to the stack of newspapers, and grabs one, with the top headline being "Earth's Slayer Averts Apocalypse…Again."

"It's not bad, got you voted in here."

Buffy looked at the headline, then, taking a sip of her coke, she frowned.

"I don't understand. I'm dead, right?"

"Wrong. You've ascended to a higher plane of existence."

"And I'm here, why?"

"Because you deserve it, toots. That's why. You earned yourself a vacation that doesn't end."

"And my friends?"

"They'll live. You can peek in from time to time, but there are rules against interfering."

"Whatever." Buffy downed her coke, and stood up.

Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg were walking down a deserted alley late at night, having taken it upon themselves to patrol in the absence of the Slayer. They'd almost gotten a vamp the other night. Of course, that was why Giles was at home with his arm in a sling, but it had been close. On a good note, it was summer, which meant longer days and more vamp-free hours.

"How do you think Buffy is?" Willow asked.

"Are you kidding? I'm betting lots of sun, beautiful women. Oh, and none of those guys," Xander replied, grabbing the stake from his belt as two vampires stepped out from behind a dumpster.

"Oh, goody, one for each of us!" Willow quipped

The two vamps looked at each other, then lunged, and the two Slayerettes stepped to either side, tripping the vamps.

"Ok, well, let's see if that new spell works," Willow said, pointing a finger at one of the vamps. "Fuego!"

A tiny spark jumped from her fingertip, creating a smoldering patch on one of the vampire's out-dated suits before going out.

"Apparently not," Xander said, plunging his stake into the vamp closest to him. "Score one for the Xander!"

The other vampire was starting to get up, looking annoyed. "That was a five-hundred-dollar suit, you know," he griped. "I'll just have to eat you for that."

"I think that's enough patrolling for tonight, don't you think?" Willow said, as she turned and started to run.

"Less talk, more running!" Xander replied, right on her heels as they headed back towards the main street.

As they disappeared into the distance, Buffy sighed. Oma had been right. Looking in on the past was not the way to start a fresh existence. But she worried about her friends. Seeing Xander and Willow taking up the slack didn't make her happy. There should be a Slayer for the Hellmouth. It was too dangerous without it. Who else would be able to take care of the burgeoning apocalypses?

"If I have a beer, will it actually get me drunk?" Buffy asked as she slumped back into one of the booths.

"How deep is the river if you cannot see the bottom?" Oma replied.

"I'll take that as a no." She paused, looking around the unusually quiet diner. "How do you locate someone you've never met?"

The waitress walked to the soda fountain, and got a coke, and returning to the table, she placed it in front of Buffy. "If you know what you want, you can find what you need."

Buffy got to her feet. "Look, you can quit the cryptic. I want to know where the Slayer after me is. You can either tell me that or we can find out how well ascended beings can handle having the crap beat out of them."

"She's perky, maybe we should hire her," commented the cook, from behind the pass-through.

Working at the diner kept her distracted for a while, but she managed to find herself checking in on Sunnydale, where the Slayerettes were doing their best to keep the vampire population in check. Oz probably had the edge, being a werewolf, but they really didn't have much luck. She kept wishing there was more she could do.

Instead, she focused on finding the current Slayer. She found out one of the diner regulars had some insight on how the line worked, and Kendra dying had activated a Slayer, but not her own more recent death. It had something to do with the line having already passed her by. It had been like talking to Giles, well, except for the fact that this particular expert wasn't English, and as for the human, she wasn't sure about that, either.

Finally, someone let slip something about "having faith in Boston" in regards to the Slayer, and she went Earth-side to check things out.

Buffy caught up with the new Slayer as she took out three vampires snacking on a bus of churchgoers. In the nude. The new girl had spunk, but no control. Buffy watched as the minister hugged the naked slayer in profuse thanks, and they both got dragged down to the station. She followed them, until the girl was placed alone in a conference room.

Buffy took a deep breath, and walked through the wall into the room, looking at the Slayer. Then she did something she'd never tried before, she made it so the new girl could see her.

"That was some stylish slayage," Buffy said, smiling wryly as the girl jumped.

The dark-haired Slayer looked her over, and Buffy realized she was in her diner uniform. Changing clothes wasn't really important anymore, since it only took a thought. But the Slayer was looking at her like she was…

"What kind of demon are you?"

"Uh, not. If I ever have to slay vampires without clothes, now I know how to do it. I'm Buffy, the Vampire Slayer."

"Faith."

"Of all the irritating fortune cookie…" Buffy grumbled.

Faith looked irritated, and, on a whim, she threw the box of Kleenex at Buffy, her eyes going wide as the box thumped to the floor without intercepting anything.

"Oh, right. You know how a new Slayer doesn't get Called unless the old Slayer dies, right? I'm the old Slayer."

"Get out of here," she said, coldly. "I don't know what you are or why you're here, but you can just go back to wherever you came from."

"Look, I'm sorry for bothering you…"

Faith interrupted her by standing up, the metal chair clattering to the floor, shouting "Just go to hell!"

Buffy stood there for a moment, surprised, then smiled. "Thanks, I think I will." With that, she disappeared.

Back at the Astral Diner, Buffy was getting frustrated.

"Frank, how come you never get my orders right?"

The lugubrious cook didn't answer, but Oma came over. "Let me see your ticket for this one." Before Buffy could object, she took the ticket out of her hands and read it. "Ok, burn one, wax it, drag it through the garden and pin a rose on it, Frank." She double-checked. "And wet frog-sticks in the alley."

Buffy looked at her co-worker in confusion. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Wish I was, kid, wish I was. Frank wants authenticity. You get used to it after a few hundred years of his little phases."

"Frog-sticks?"

"Hey, they're French."

End Act I