Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan fiction novel based on the TV-series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". I don't own or have any rights to the characters or the television shows.
Prologue
Ten years has passed since the destruction of Sunnydale. While Buffy traveled the world, fighting evil where it cropped up, Giles eventually went back to England to resurrect the Watchers Counsel. Willow spent a few years in relative harmony before she was summoned to a witches' coven in Austria. This secretive and closely knitted group of women, lead by the High Priestess Catherine Romanov, was widely recognized as the most powerful coven on earth. Here Willow began to explore the full range of her talents, soon climbing the ranks of the coven's hierarchy of power.
In L.A. Angel had come close to losing the battle with the Senior Partners but at the last minute Buffy, Willow and a group of Slayers showed up. Willow had received a message that Angel had finally come to his senses and they figured he probably needed some help. After an epic carnage that kills both Gunn and Illyria, Angel and Spike found themselves fighting alongside Buffy and her team, breaking the camels back as it were. When the dust cleared, the powers of the Senior Partners had been seriously weakened and in the coming years Angel began to fill the void left by the prestigious law-firm. Angel's contacts and impressive reputation made the company thrive and soon they had become as global as Wolfram & Hart once had been. After a few years Angel relocates to New York, leaving Spike in charge in Los Angeles and charging Xander with running the office in Washington DC.
As time went by, the situation with the slayers became more and more difficult. The powers Buffy and Willow had released in that doomsday battle with The First, now threatened to cause more damage than good. Although most girls who where given these extraordinary powers gladly conformed to the rules Giles and Buffy set up, controlling this many girls eventually became impossible. Too many became renegade slayers, drawn into the darkness, choosing to serve demons, committing crimes and killing humans. After a massive showdown where Buffy barely managed to lead her team to victory against three renegade slayers and their demon employers, the Powers That Be had had enough. In one full sweep all the slayers, except Buffy, where stripped of their powers. Once again Buffy was forced to carry the burden of being the one and only Slayer alone.
With Buffy mostly occupied with her mission, Xander becomes Dawn's real caretaker. When she finished High School with honors it was Xander that financed her collage education. Being smart and ambitious Dawn found herself having the choice of any school she wanted. She eventually chose Harvard and after finishing her law-degree she went to Washington DC to do her internship at a law-firm there. Being the Slayers sister she had learnt to take care of herself so when she stumbled on to a potentially demon-worshipping client she decided to handle it by herself. It wasn't the first time she had come up against evil on her own and initially this case didn't seem special. It took several weeks before she realized she was in trouble and called Xander. But by then she was in too deep. Xander soon understood that there was more to it than Dawn had told him and called Buffy and Angel. At that time, on the other side of the world, Willow had received alarming news from an entirely different source that something was very wrong in her homeland's capital. So in a strange turn of events the old Scooby-gang found themselves together again, fighting what at first seemed like just another evil evil thing.
The group of demon-worshippers that Dawn appeared to have stumbled on to had regular meetings in an old cave north of town, where they sacrificed young women. Dawn convinces the gang to use her as bait to lead them to the location of the cave. After Buffy's initial hesitation, Dawn makes her believe there is no other way. When Buffy, Angel, Willow and Xander reach the cave it seems like any other fight at first. Dawn was standing in the middle of a circle, surrounded by thirteen chanting priests preparing to kill her. But when Buffy and Angel charge in, they soon discovered that the priests were the least of their problems. In the cave walls hideous creatures had been laying in wait. Willow used her magic as much as she dared but suddenly she realized her powers were being blocked. Someone or something was using Dawn to chant and the only way Willow could regain her powers was to kill Dawn. At this moment it is clear to everyone that they have been lured into a trap. The exits were blocked, Willow was helpless, Xander was soon taken prisoner by the priests, and Buffy and Angel found themselves outmatched. Dawn had lost control over her own will and all she could do was to weep as her family and loved ones faced their last battle.
Then, when all seemed lost, strange noises were heard from the cave's entrance. Demons were being killed, help was on the way. It was Spike who had gotten warnings from a demon friend that some truly evil thing had staged a trap to rid the world of the strongest champions of good. Feeling he should be included in that he had gathered a group of former slayers and other fighters and headed for the capital. With Spike turning up at the nick of time, Buffy and Angel regained their focus, and standing back to back slaying demons by the dozens, they finally got the upper hand in the battle.
But as the task the priests had been sent to accomplish appeared to be lost they decided to kill as many as they could, turning to Xander with knifes in their hands. Willow watched helplessly as they descend on her friend out of her reach. With the powers controlling her temporarily wavering in the wake of the dying demons, Dawn saw her chance to break free. But unable to end the chanting being done through her she does the only thing she can to save Xander. With the last drop of strength in her exhausted body she grabbed the sacrificial knife lying in front of her. As the blade penetrated her flesh, the chanting was replaced by horrifying cries of pain and despair and Willow's powers were restored. She saved Xander at the last minute by unleashing all her grief and rage on to the priests, burning them to ash. Buffy was in the middle of fighting when she suddenly noticed her sister on her knees, dripping with blood. She quickly dodged an attacker and ran to her sister's aid. Unfortunately it was too late. Buffy kneels by her sister's side just in time to hear her last words, "I'm sorry".
The demons were all defeated, the priests were all dead. A foul smell of rotting flesh filled the cave and in the deafening silence the gang knew nothing will ever be the same again. After losing herself in tears for a while, Buffy slowly got up and left the cave without a word, disappearing into the night.