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.

Who the hell authorized this clusterfrak?
-Richard Adar, President of the Twelve Colonies, on the Initiative

Earlier

Buffy swung her sword, neatly decapitating a hechler demon before bringing Mr. Pointy to bear with her left hand into the heart of a charging vampire. Riley and Giles were holding their own demons as they held the front with Buffy, while Spike was loudly holding the rear all on his own (with a bit of support from Dawn's crossbow). It had been lucky, sort of, that Spike had heard the news earlier, and had sought out the Slayer and company, knowing they'd have a "way off this buggered planet."

It went against her better instincts, but the chipped Spike was incredibly useful when fighting demons.

Unfortunately, in sealing the Initiative, the Colonial Fleet had sealed in, as far as Buffy could tell, hundreds of various demons, who were now organizing to get out - something generally unheard of among so many different species of demon. Not to mention other demons who had heard the news of Cylons, and were looking for anyplace of an underground persuasion to hide from nuclear weapons.

There had been few humans about before they got to the campus of the University of Caprica in Sunnydale. Something about sleeping at night.

Riley slowly led the group of Scoobies through the Initiative toward where the shuttles were. Hopefully, they'd get there soon enough, before Sunnydale ended up a bit hotter than its name implied.

"Buffy!" he cried, warning her of a fakirel demon coming from behind her he swung up to block, which, through a bit of coordination, was quickly vanquished.

Clearly, Mom was totally overwhelmed. She had, with the exception of the MOO incident, pretty much stayed on the sidelines of the slaying. She'd tried to shield Dawnie from that world, too, but Dawn had been a freshman the year Hellmouth High went all explody - and hadn't exactly been absent that day.

Soon, they were actually moving pretty quickly through the Initiative's tunnels, most of the demons actually being rather easily dealt with, until they started getting past the larger cells - or, rather, where they used to be - in the complex.

A sarenta demon is one native to Caprica. They're amphibimas, Buffy remembered, a sea monster that can live on land. Ugh. It was a simple demon - killed by normal weapons and a simple beheading. That is, if you could get past the claws. And get to all three of its heads. And this particular sarenta demon was about twice Buffy's size. She'd fought one the first year in Sunnydale, so she wasn't especially worried about this one.

Riley, Buffy and Giles went right to it, blocking its' thick claws with their swords while they tried to defeat it. In the open, Buffy probably could have taken it out relatively easily. She had the advantages of strength and jumping ability. But, in the crowded underground tunnels, where its hands were able to block most routes to its vital parts, it became a much bigger problem.

It flailed, back and forth, bringing down parts of the tunnel as it reeled back in pain from the constant attacks from the Scoobies, but they'd eventually gotten to it. Two heads down, one to go. But now, it was really flailing, and, in a last ditch attempt at escape, attempted to bring its wings (Did she mention the wings?) up in an attempt to get over them.

It failed, Buffy striking upward with her sword into the last neck, but, unfortunately, while the thing was dead, its momentum wasn't, and it smashed into a support structure, bringing it down. Dawn screamed as Buffy ran, dragging her away from the falling beam, very narrowly saving her sister from certain death.

In the quiet afterward, Dawn clung to Buffy's protection in a way that was, if nothing else, entirely unnatural for a teenage little sister (that is, if you can really call someone taller than you your "little" sister).

It was only a few seconds later that Giles realized something, bringing it to the forefront.

"Where's Joyce?"

Buffy quickly jumped up, bringing her sister with her as she went to the support, and yelled out,

"Mom? Mom!"

"I'm here, honey!" Thank the gods.

"Are you okay, mom?" Buffy yelled back, now looking for some way she could get through the support beam, and the wall and ceiling which had fallen through between them and her mother.

"Just fine! Thanks for the concern, Slayer!" Spike yelled back, to Buffy's annoyance.

"Yes, we're both fine!" her mother called back through the rubble.

"Spike!" Riley called, through, "There's another way to the shuttles! Go back to the last intersection, and make a left. It's longer, but you'll get there!"

"Got it! We'll get there!" he yelled back, and Buffy could just barely hear them standing on the other side.

"Go, Buffy!" her mother yelled back, "We'll be fine!"

Buffy didn't want to, but there was nothing that could be done now but plunge forward. Plunge? Does that even make sense?

Whatever.

They made their way through the tunnels which, after the sarenta, were pretty empty. The sarenta'd probably killed them all off. So it was mostly a quiet walk until they got to the shuttle room.

Buffy could see two shuttles in the room, and Riley quickly said,

"You three, get on one of the raptors. I'll get the door open."

Buffy nodded her consent, and the three of them made their way toward the . Buffy could hear quiet signs of combat in the distance, knowing that Spike and her mom were coming up another hallway.

As the three of them walked, cautiously, into the room as Riley went into a nearby control room. But, before long, they were all surprised when a tentacle leapt up from the floor. It smashed into Giles, throwing him across the room and knocking his head against the wall (again) as another tentacle grabbed Dawn's ankle.

Dawn screamed as she dropped her crossbow, being dragged toward a pit at the edge of the shuttle room. Buffy rushed up, brandishing her sword as she cut at the tentacle, once, twice, three times before it tore through, letting Dawn escape. She cut back at another tentacle that came for her, severing it in one cut as she went to the nearest raptor, pushed the "Open" button, and all but threw Dawn in. She ran across the room, deflecting and cutting off two more tentacles as she grabbed Giles, hefting him over her shoulder and running back, fighting the tentacle-demon one handed, to the raptor with Dawn, putting him down.

As she turned back, she saw Riley furiously typing through the glass between the control room and the shuttle room. He looked up after pushing a button, and, thankfully, when Buffy looked up, too, the doors were opening above them. But, as Buffy looked down, Riley had been grabbed from behind by a vampire, and was being fed upon. When Buffy ran out to assist, a tentacle knocked her sword from her hand, throwing her back into the raptor, as another tentacle started to snake into the shuttle.

Buffy quickly pushed a button, closing the raptor's door onto the tentacle, cutting the part inside off the part outside. The part vaporized as Buffy turned back, looking to the controls and, purely on instinct, began pushing buttons. Luckily, they managed to turn the thing on and activate the engines, and, in doing so, immediately lifted up off the ground, going straight up and out of the shuttle room, seeing herself now just outside UC Sunnydale's campus, a small bit into the Sunnydale desert that met the edge of the small town.

She turned the controls up, and began flying away. A few seconds later, an icon appeared on the thing that shows where other ships are. Dredik? Anyway, it was the other raptor. She flew upward, and away, when suddenly there was a loud sounding alarm. Dawn suddenly called out,

"Radiological alarm! Nukes incoming!"

Buffy didn't give a second's thought to how Dawn could possibly read this crap and immediately turned away, flying straight up for space as the sudden glow of a nuclear explosion filled the vision from the direction of Sunnydale proper. She pushed the raptor to full throttle and went at full speed upward, feeling the rumbling of the explosion starting to affect their rear as she determinedly flew upward until it stopped, and all that fille her vision was black.

She would never know when the other raptor had disappeared from the dredik.

Present

Well, that was that. They were gone from Cyrannus. No more Colonies to worry about.

Hell, who was she kidding? Now they had a hundred thousand people in a fleet to worry about, all of whom hated each other. And, with her luck, half of them were demons that needed slaying.

She simply couldn't do it. How was she supposed to help people like this? She didn't know how to fly - except some lucky flying right out of Sunnydale. She didn't know how she could get around the fleet to slay. And, gods, she was tired. How could she take this? How was anyone taking this? People were dead. Twenty billion people were dead. It was an apocalypse, and Buffy hadn't been able to do a thing about it. She hadn't been able to save anyone.

Not even her own boyfriend. Not even her own mother.

"Buffy?"

Buffy turned to the voice of her best friend, giving a fake smile.

"Willow."

"How're you doing?" Willow asked, concerned.

"Okay, I guess," Buffy said, blinking back tears.

Willow gave Buffy the resolve face for several seconds before Buffy relented,

"Okay, then. Not okay. Sad," she said, turning to look at the empty space outside of Colonial One, "Miserable."

"Buffy," Willow said, filling the one word with far more than she usually was able to into entire babbles - which, for Willow, was saying something.

"I mean, gods," Buffy said, continuing, "What am I supposed to do now? I don't know how to do anything in space. I've left Caprica twice in my life, and last time I was twelve!"

"Th-there are other things," Willow said, protesting, "I- I mean you can do lots of things. I mean- oh! You took freshman psychology!"

Buffy looked up at Willow, somewhat bemused despite a few tears still glistening on her face.

"Okay, that's not much," Willow conceded. "But, Buffy, you can't do this. We'll make it. It'll be okay. Did you hear what Commander Adama said? Earth!"

"With our luck it's overrun by demons," Buffy said, pessimistically.

"C'mon, Buff," Willow said, taking Buffy into a hug, "It'll be alright. We'll be alright."

Buffy didn't concede the point, but surrendered herself into the wonderful Willow-hug for a few seconds, letting everything flee from her mind as she embraced her best friend.

"Ms. Canaan?" a voice came, as they released the hug.

"What is it, Keikeya?" Willow asked.

"The President wants to see you for a minute."

Willow shot an apologetic look at Buffy, which she waved away with a nod, and a slight smile, and Willow followed the man out of the room.

Buffy turned away, quietly standing in one of the few private places left on this crowded ship, and took something out of her pocket. She examined Mr. Pointy with her hands, closing her eyes as she quietly simply felt the feel of the Sagittaron oak in her hand, carved with care by her first successor, and quietly looked upward.

"Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer," Buffy began, almost in a whisper, "Protect those souls who are lost, and guide me now to protect her... to protect Dawn, in this apocalypse. Goddess Calyntha, patron of Slayers, help me now to find my place. And, whatever her crimes, guide the soul of your anointed Faith Liathain into Elysion, so she may have in death what failed her in life. So say we all."