Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, nor do I own Battlestar Galactica. They are owned by Joss Whedon and Ronald D. Moore respectively. I merely play with their toys while they're away. Also, this series entirely ignores anything not directly mentioned in Battlestar Galactica, so ignore anything from Caprica. This was conceived before that, so I'm not letting it hamper my creativity.

On Kobol, she was formed – the Shadows formed her through the gods to save us from the demons, and keep her to preserve us. She dies that we might live.
-Fragment of the Cordelian Writings, from the Colonization Era.

Earlier today

Buffy the Vampire Slayer lay restless, troubled by the image of the First Slayer in her dreams. Though she hadn't had a Slayer dream since the disaster after Deucalion, the dark-skinned Kelara still troubled her dreams every night. If sleep weren't necessary, even for a Slayer, she'd probably have given it up by now.

She looked around the small, bare apartment, trying to find some image within it to distract her. Riley didn't have much, probably a result of his long service in the military. She'd never actually looked around his apartment before, despite her practically living there most of the time for the last few months.

She untangled herself from her lover's arms, a task which would have proven impossible for any normal person of her size and height, and rose up in the bed, looking around the small room. She looked at the two pictures he kept in his bedroom. First was of himself with his parents and an older brother, at their farm on Canceron. The other was of his graduation from the Colonial Fleet Academy on Canceron.

That Riley had joined them against the Initiative and stayed in Sunnydale after the Initiative's fall, when these two pictures were those most important to him, said what Buffy meant to him. He had given up the military to help them against the Initiative. Sure, he'd been cleared of all charges, but his military career was certainly over – a record including mutiny was never going to be looked on kindly in the Fleet. He had given up his family, as well, to stay on Caprica, instead of returning to Canceron after his discharge.

Buffy was still restless, though, even after studying the pictures, and looked to the certificate he'd received two fortnights ago, something he'd tossed aside and never looked at again, though had to keep for records. She picked it up, fingering the only real evidence, however peripheral, of the Initiative's existence, outside of that ruined facility –

This document is to certify the early discharge of
Riley Finn (Canceron)
Captain
from service in the Colonial Fleet, which he served with honor,
On this day, Nguruvilu 2, 21354

Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. Buffy glared at the phone with a look that made demons run and hide, but, unfortunately, the telephone is an inanimate object, thus incapable of fear.

Riley made no move from his deep sleep, so Buffy sighed, walked over to the bedside table, and moved to pick it up. She was tempted, for a fleeting moment, to simply hang it up again (it would serve them right, after all, for interrupting in the middle of the night), but decided it was probably important, and put it to her ear.

"Hello, Riley Finn's residence, Buffy speaking."

"Buffy! Thank the gods. It's Cordelia."

"Cordelia? Where'd you get this number? Why are you calling at this ungodly hour of the night? What's going on? Is it Angel? What's happened?"

"Jeez, Buffy, channel Willow much?"

"Cordelia, you'd better have a good rea-"

"Sorry, sorry, I'd love to catch up and stuff, but we have a major problem."

"What is it? Angel?"

"An apocalypse, Buffy. And we can't do anything about it."

"What? But we already had an apocalypse this year. And why can't we do anything?"

"Listen, Buffy. Something's coming. I'm not sure what, but I had a vision. You have to go, get everyone out. Sunnydale, Saloniki, the Colonies in general, it's all going to be destroyed in a few hours. The only thing we can do is you, get off Caprica. You HAVE to get out. Get Dawn, Xander, Giles, whoever, and get OFF the planet. There's a way, somehow. Your boyfriend knows. Angel, Wesley and I have to worry about Saloniki, you worry about getting out of Sunnydale."

Buffy's annoyance, her anger, her drowsiness, all vanished at once as the Slayer took charge, "What do you mean, we can't do anything about it? There must be something!"

"Unless your Slayer powers can stop a nuke smashing the hellmouth from orbit, there is absolutely nothing you can do."

"Damn." Buffy didn't know how Cordelia would know that was coming, but Buffy knew, absolutely, she couldn't do anything about that. Then her eyes widening, remembering something, "But, Cordy, wait! Xander and Anya, they're in Saloniki! Can you and Angel do something there?"

"Anya? Never mind. We'll do what we can from here. Can you get Willow, Giles and your family?"

"Willow and Tara are off-world seeing Tara's uncle or something. I wasn't paying attention. But they're not on Caprica."

"Whatever, do what you can in Sunnydale. Just get off the planet, as soon as you can. You don't even have until daylight."

"Alright. I'll get moving. See you later."

"Gods willing. Bye."

Present

Buffy was now rebandaging a rather nasty scratch Giles had received during their escape, and, having re-cleaned the wound, was now rewrapping with the emergency medical supplies they'd found in the raptor.

Dawn was sitting in the copilot's seat, listening to the wireless and, occasionally, sending out the same message that her older sister had been, before. Dawn was actually being rather more capable than usual in a crisis – considering Buffy's forced exclusion of Dawn from Scooby Gang activities for years, even after her participation at Graduation. The Slayer's observations saw her newly sixteen year old sister in a new light, one useful, even if she needed protection.

Though Buffy would never see her as a capable adult – she was Dawn, her little sister, who had been kidnapped by Angelus, among others, and would always need her protection.

"Krypter, krypter, krypter. Civilian flown raptor over Saloniki Valley requires assistance. Repeat, civilian flown raptor over Saloniki Valley requires assistance. Krypter, krypter, krypter."

Dawn listened, receiving no response but static. "Frak."

"Language, Dawn," Buffy chastised her baby sister from the other side of the raptor

Dawn snorted, and turned around to look at her annoyingly overprotective older sister, "Who cares? It's all gone. You tell me a better time to say 'frak.'"

Buffy looked up from Giles to her sister, "Mom wouldn't want you to, Dawn."

"Whatever," Dawn said, rolling her eyes and turning back to face the empty space ahead of the raptor; Sagittaron and Aerilon could just barely be seen in the distance.

Buffy returned the gesture, looking back to Giles and finishing the bandage, and, speaking to her watcher,

"Can you sit up?"

"I don't know," Giles started, "but, I suppose I should try."

He grabbed a bulkhead, using it as leverage as he pulled himself up, using his other hand to hold onto Buffy's arm for support. He managed to sit up, leaning against the bulkhead and looking directly out in the direction of the stars.

Then, a sound came out of the wireless, a slight voice, just barely picking up. Dawn hit a button saying, "Say again, Raptor 312, we do not copy" now switching the wireless to headphones she was wearing over her ears as Buffy quickly rose and came up to the front.

Buffy tried to take the headphones from her sister, only to have Dawn slap her hands aside as she listened carefully, "Acknowledging coordinates, Raptor 312."

"Well?" Buffy asked

"I got a military raptor, it's over the Kivaner Plains. We agreed to meet at a closer location, where we can tie our FTL drive to theirs, and they can take us to some convoy."

"Where are we going?" Buffy said, now starting up the raptor's engines and taking hold of the flight controls,

"Uh," Dawn said, checking a monitor visual of the immediate space around Caprica, "Make for heading 253 carom 151."

"Gotcha."