Disclaimer- I do not own any right to the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor do I suggest that this is definetly, without a doubt, what happened to the scoobie gang after the fall of the hellmouth.

Chosen Path

Later - the same day...

Buffy had just crawled out of a really bad interview. This was her third. The first went good, she could be a librarian. After all, she did miss all those times in the Sunnydale highschool library. Of course, then she wasn't really in there for business... nor pleasure. Oh well, they said they would definetly be calling her back. Well she had one more to go to. Flipping burgers at a McDonalds. Hm... after the whole run in with the Double Meat Palace, she really wasn't interested in their secret ingredient. Considering her and Dawn ate out there at least once every two weeks. She decided to all it a day, thinking she had the Librarian job in the bag. Buffy just got into her car and drove home.

- - -

Hillcrest Academy (Dawn's school)

It was about 10:00am and Dawn was almost finished with her second class. In about 45 minutes she would have a free period and she wanted to go home and catch some snoozage for about 90 minutes. She loved the blocked scheduling here in London. They had it in America too, but she loved London. Despite she didn't have many fans there. Meaning, she had a few enemies. She had friends, of course. There was a very nice girl named Gwen who was blonde, and Brian who was kind of a rebel, and then there was Logan. He was American, just like Dawn. So he understood what it was like to go to a foreign school and be made fun of just because your American.

Dawn felt as if she was about to fall asleep in front of her history teacher. I guess this is what she gets for failing it her junior year. Dawn could have stopped after her Sophomore year, but Buffy just wanted her to have that fabulous London education, all the way away from Willow and Xander. She also missed-

"Dawn, answer the question." Demanded the teacher, Mrs. Brinkston.

"The question?" Dawn asked puzzled.

She just rolled her eyes. "The source of the black plaque. Do you know? Or do you just not care?" She had one of those fake london accents. The kind you would want to throw against a brick wall.

Dawn just looked at her. She had her last year. She obviously wasn't pleased to see her again. "I think it was... apart of... trench warefare?"

"Wow, read that off of one of your old homework assingments?" She said in an obviouse bad mood. And gee, Buffy thinks Dawn is annoying around this time of the month. Imagine what her teacher is like.

- - -

Watchers Council - Somewhere in Ohio (Remote area) - 5:00am (American Time)

Willow had her head resting on a very large book on top of many other small ones. Her lamp was set to low mode, and the sun was going to be coming up soon. Xander walked in, after waking up 20 minutes before hand.

"Will..." He said shaking her a little.

"Wha... huh..." She looked up and around. "Xander... What time is it?"

"About 5... am. How late were you up?"

"... uh... Last I checked it was about 2:30am. School's going to start soon for the girls. I should get ready."

"Did you call her?" Xander asked as Willow got up.

Willow sighed, staring at him. "No. I couldn't." Xander just stared at her. "It's hard Xander," she began walking over to the double doors leading from her office to her bedroom. "You can't just call someone up after not seeing them for over a year and go, 'hey, haven't seen ya' in a while. Feel like battling some evil darkness that could destroy the world again?'. We know better Xander, we can't." She dug into her closet looking for appropriate atire for the girls day back. "Besides. We have a whole line of Slayer's now, that we're teaching here. AND Watchers. What's one more Slayer going to help."

"Hey, now! Stop that, dammit!" He said pointing at Willow. "We both know we need Buffy to get throught his. Without her--"

"Without her we'll get by. We can handle one lousy apocalypse." Willow said throwing her things into her bathroom.

"No we can't. Look, we both know how much evil Buffy has been through. How much she has had to handle."

"And she deserves a life now, Xander!" She shouted at him with a tear rolling down her left cheek. "We were right there with her, during those times, when we had to fight in Sunnydale for seven years. We can do this without her. Without her orders. She decided to leave the circle, Xander. Once you do something like that, there's no coming back. Unless she is to call us, Xander and say she wants back in, we don't go searching for help."

Xander just starred at Willow. Now sin't the time to be sounding like a hero, he thought.He doesn't like this. What was coming. What was already on it's way and they were just waiting for it to knock on their doors. He felt they needed Buffy, he felt safe with Buffy. Buffy can make it all go away, and some how she'll get them throught this. It started to rain, hard. The clouds were cloudy and fog was settling. "Now if you would excuse me, I have to take a shower. I'll see you in the teacher's lounge."

- - -

About an hour later, two other teachers from the school were sitting in there. One man, and a woman. The woman had short brown hair like Ms. Calendar had and she wore jeans and a t-shirt. Her name was Vada Coleman and she taught the Watcher's history and training. The man had short hair also, similar to Xander's. He wore a long sleeve white shirt with jeans. His name was Khriss Kilerjman and he taught the Slayer's knowledge and history. Unlike Ms. Coleman, Mr. Kiljerman was a Watcher.

"I suppose he finaly decided to tell you, huh?" Vada asked.

"Yeah... I have no idea what we'll do. I mean we have this army of the Slayers and Watcher to help I suppose..."

"I know, I know, It won't be enough. It never is, I mean look at what happened to the hellmouth in 2003. Maybe 5 Slayer's made it out alive. Do you think we'll need this Slayer they keep mentioning... what's her name..."

"Buffy Summers." He croaked. "It wouldn't kill anything. She has been the very most famouse Slayer for the last 9 years." Khriss said surprised.

"Why haven't I heared too much of her?"

"Haha!" The man laughed. "Well, she has resigned as the Slayer." he sipped his coffee.

"Resigned?"

"Yes, almost immediatley after this school was about to be built, she wanted nothing to do with it. I mean, she helped for about the first month, with plans and things of that sort, but when she heared there would be the arrival of Watcher's, she packed and took her sister with her. She wanted this school to be run for only the Slayer's only. She assumed us Watcher's only good was to drink tea and recall old demons of sorts. She felt they could do that on their own..."

"And so she just left?" Vada asked concerned.

"There was a falling out between Mr. Harris and Ms. Rosenburg and the Slayer. Two out of the three wanted Watcher's, and one did not. The one that did not left immeditaley, and they haven't spoken since... Or so I've heared."

"You eaves drop too much." She said getting up. "School is starting in twenty minutes. Are you coming?"

"I'll be there in a second." He replied stretching.

Just as Vada left, Xander walked in.

"Xan. the man." He said looking at Xander.

"Mr. Kilerjman. School is starting soon..." He said pouring himself some coffee. "I'm gonna guess, you'll be showing?"

He quirked a smile. "Yes. I Will." He got up and headed for the door. "Just one question first..."

"No." Xander said, before Khriss could even reply.

"No?" He asked turning around.

"No... she'll be a no-show."