A Power-full start

A/N These will be groups of 500 word segments because I wanted to group them like I do a WWS episode but it's easier for me to write them in little chunks, so this will be a mix, you'll see anyway. But yeah, I know this has been done loads of times but I wanted to have my own stab at it. And it starts a little while after the battle at the Hellmouth, about a year. Kinda ignores the comics a little.

San Francisco, California 2004

Buffy sat outside on the balcony of her and Willow's apartment, the two had decided to live together once they couldn't sort out their love lives. Willow had become distant after the threat of the First was over, she missed Tara. Thus making a barrier between her and Kennedy, quite literally sometimes. Her magic had been growing stronger by the day and she feared Kennedy had only stayed with her for the power. So Buffy had found them an apartment and Willow'd split from Kennedy on civil terms. But it had caused a slight downward spiral in that she felt herself only being pulled towards the blackness swelling deep inside her, she needed to go somewhere, do something that was different from everyday normality. Without a Hellmouth the both of them were slightly bored of the nothingness ordinary life prescribed.

So Buffy's tired hands, after a long slog at work - an office building she'd begun to temp at, which was unfulfilling and dull, but they needed the money. Xander helped them out sometimes with bits and Giles sent what he could, but really there wasn't much left to grasp at. Her hands leaned over the high up ledge as Buffy observed her life, it was ok, it wasn't awful, she wasn't alone. As she very well could've been, she wasn't dead or in prison so really there were major pluses.

And her and Willow loved living together, it was familiar and they'd lived together for so long now, it seemed natural. They loved each other, and they would always be there. She could never be with her soulmate and Willow had lost hers so companionship seemed like a pretty good solution given all they'd lost. Buffy's eyes began to glaze over as she looked down at the city, their block was dead centre of the action filled streets of San Francisco, it was sunset, and the hot chocolate mug in Buffy's hands served as a warming agent for when the night grew cold and reclusive.

As the horizon line drifted between a pale yellow and deep sunny orange there was a distant white light floating gently down to meet Buffy's eyes. Whatever it was looked like some sort of angel, not the vampire sort, the angel sort. A beautiful figure in pure white filled Buffy's entire eyeline, with their long flowing hair and white glow, they really looked like something out of a Christmas movie. Buffy thought for a second she might be dreaming, and it was an entire possibility that she was, but after pinching herself a couple of times to check she decided the latter must be true and she was indeed awake.

"Buffy Summers?" The figure asked, its voice an angelic host of sound, the softness of its tongue was perfection, not a note out of place. Buffy stared hard, before realising someone was actually speaking to her.

"Erm, yes?" Buffy replied a little sheepish and little more confused. This really felt like a dream, but she'd checked that. Maybe there was something else. Oh yeah, count your fingers. So Buffy began to count, splaying her hands out over the thin air.

"You're not dreaming." The figure confirmed as Buffy reached the ten of her counting.

"Oh, well thanks for telling me." She said sarcastically, the tiredness of the day getting to her and grouchiness settled in. "Sorry, I had a long day. So if I'm not dreaming, why are you here? Whatever you are." She said pointing at the whiteness in a confused manner.

"I'm a Power Miss Summers, a risen angel from before the old ones, but I am here to reward you for all the times you've saved this world in your one lifetime, having given that life up at several possibilities. The Powers That Be have decided you should be granted one wish." Before Buffy could speak however the Power rushed forward in a surge of light that almost blinded the slayer herself, a finger held over her lips as it continued. "But you must think hard about this wish and make sure your soul is pure in your decision."

Buffy blinked trying to eradicate the burning light from inside her eye, and when she opened her eyes the Power was gone. A figment of her imagination, a daydream she wouldn't remember tomorrow. So she finished the hot chocolate and went to bed, the idea of a wish not staying too long in her short term memory as her tired limbs drifted into a tired sleep.

Having tossed and turned all night, with fragmented dreams of the bright angel, Buffy was exhausted in the morning. The wish thing starting to haunt her every waking moment. As she poured out her morning coffee and said a sleepy morning to Willow, she decided upon ringing Giles, he must know something about these Power people. So Buffy diled the familiar number into the handset, her fingers tapping lightly at the kitchen counter as she torso leaned furtively against it.

"Hello?" Giles said on the other end of the line, his voice a little gravely, he must have had a long day. She forgot sometimes how far ahead he was settled in England. Willow had often reminded her, having been on the other end for an entire summer. There was even a post-it on the refrigerator stating that fact.

"Hello, oh it's Buffy by the way. Last night there was something. A weird thing, it just appeared out of nowhere..." Buffy trailed off as she could feel Giles cleaning his glasses. His impending sigh imminent.

"Oh Buffy, it's nice to hear from you. Yes, thank you Giles and how was your day? Oh it was fine thanks isn't it morning there?" Giles deliberated between himself and himself, feigning conversation. To which Buffy could hear the sarcasm and felt slightly bad for not calling him when there wasn't some strange bad guy activity, and she wasn't even sure if this came under that title.

"Sorry, I meant to call, but-"

"I know, other things got in the way." Giles said cutting her off, he knew the usual story so there was no need to push her any further, and she'd mentioned something was going on. It could be bad, maybe a prophetic dream.

So Buffy explained about the ghostly white angelic figure hovering high against her balcony. And about the reward idea and the name Powers. To which Giles explained their histories; including how they were once good spirits walking the Earth in times of the ancients, the golden race, sentient and powerful, with the energy and power to do many things no longer capable. Like bending the values of life and death, and eradicating disease. But that when the old ones appeared from the demonic realms the Powers all but died, only a few escaped ascending to the heavens in place of safety, far above the woes of man. But they exist to help, to aid the forces of good against the demons. Much like the slayer herself.

So maybe Buffy believed the Power was telling the truth, if so, what would she wish for? The angel had said it had to come from a place of pure soul, or whatever that meant. There were so many things she could do; Angel. She could live a full, long life with Angel. He could be human again. "I'll have to think about it." Were the last words she spoke to Giles before hanging up the phone, the handset slipping slightly from her grasp and ended up hung upside down swinging from the wall. Buffy walked away into her room, grabbing a notebook and pen and trying to decide what to do. There would be no work today.

Leaving quickly meant she'd missed Giles' last reply, a sallow message of warning. "And Buffy, do be careful what you wish for."