Chosen
The next couple months went by fairly quickly. The First had reappeared and began working through his vessel, an evil priest named Caleb. Buffy and the gang discovered an ancient weapon created specifically for the upcoming battle. A weapon created from the essence of the slayer. The potentials had kept on with their training while the core Scooby Gang began to formulate their plans for the fight.
The citizens of the town (human and demon alike) had evacuated long ago. The potentials and all the other fighters for good arrived at what remained of Sunnydale High at noon one day in the middle of June. The potentials were sent to secure the entrance to the hellmouth while the core gang had a final meeting near where Willow and Tara were going to do their spell.
Joining the ranks of the fighters over the weeks gone by had been several slayers and former Trio member Andrew Wells, whose brother had tried to ruin prom with hellhounds. The biggest surprise and most recent addition to their ranks was Lindsey McDonald, former evil lawyer. Angel advised them to let him stay, but to watch him carefully.
Andrew, the weakest fighter, was paired up with Anya, the most experienced in swordplay. The ex-demon had bested all-comers, Buffy included, in terms of skill with all sword types. The only one who had come close to beating her was Giles and Buffy only bested her because of her slayer strength. They went to guard the north hall, one of three entrances to the sewers.
Giles and Lindsey who was well skilled in swordplay and hand to hand combat and due to contacts he gained at Wolfram&Hart, the evil law office in LA, he had mystical tattoos that gave him superhuman strength equal to that of a vampire Angel's age. The two of them took the lounge where most of the Turok-Han were expected to go.
Which left Xander and Dawn with the atrium. Andrew and Anya left to get ready as did Lindsey. Dawn, carrying a duffel bag with two swords, several stakes and an axe, "I'm gonna go check out the atrium."
"Wait!" Both Willow and Buffy quickly said.
Dawn turned back to them, "No, cause anything you say is gonna sound like "goodbye", just go do your jobs and we can talk later." She said giving them both a smile, kissing Willow before continuing to her post."
Tara gave Buffy a kiss before going to set up for the spell in the principal's office which was right above the hellmouth seal. All that remained were the original four Scooby members, "So, what do you guys wanna do tomorrow?" Buffy asked.
"Nothing strenuous." Willow said.
"Well mini-golf is always the first thing that comes to mind." Xander offered.
"I think we can do better than that." Giles said.
"I was thinking about shopping, as per usual." Buffy added.
"Oh! There's an Arden B in the new mall!" Willow said excitedly.
"I could use a few items." Xander agreed.
"Well, now aren't we going to discuss this? Save the world, go to the mall?" Giles asked exasperated.
"I'm having a wicked shoe craving." Buffy continued ignoring Giles.
"Aren't you on the patch?" Xander asked.
"Those never work." Willow answered.
"Here I am, invisible to the eye…" Giles dramatized.
"See, I need a new look. It's the whole eye-patch thing." Xander said as the three of them walked away from Giles.
"Oh, you could go with full black secret agent look." Buffy suggested.
"Or the puffy shirt, pirate slash…" Willow offered.
"The earth is definitely doomed." Giles mocked.
Willow split off from her high school friends and joined Tara, ready to do the spell. Buffy went to the basement where Faith and the potentials were waiting to open the seal. Xander continued on to where Dawn was waiting for him in the atrium. "Hey Dawnster! You ready to get our slayage on?" He asked bringing a smile to the teen's face.
"Let's do this thing and get it over with quick. Cause I'm getting a wicked shoe craving." Dawn answered tossing Xander one of the swords.
Xander smiled, noting how similar the two sisters were in certain areas. "OK Dawn, there're two doorways here." He said indicating the north and south entrances, "I'll stand on the east half of the room and you take the west. Let's see those Shaka-khan things try and get past us."
Dawn nodded her agreement still smiling at the carpenter's quirkiness. She opened her link to the powers that be and was granted a view of their whole "battlefield". She saw Buffy, Faith and the potentials climbing down a hole in the basement, They're inside. She said to the others through the telepathic link set up by her, Tara, and Willow. The Turok-Han have spotted them. Buffy Faith and Spike are still the front line, the potentials are doing what they can…Willow and Tara finished the spell! She shouted through the link, almost passing out in awe of the sheer power coming from the two witches. A few minutes later she gave an update, One of the potentials was just killed, it was Justine, who was one of the more recent additions, The potentials are being called! The spell worked! There're still a lot of Turok-Han though. Five of them coming to you Giles and Lindsey. Everyone watch your backs, Bringers are here too. After that Dawn's updates were much more infrequent. She would announce whenever a potential died and give warnings to the other groups.
Their battle was nearing it's conclusion when she felt something was wrong. She checked the other teams of two first, Andrew! Group of Bringers behind Anya! Take 'em on now! She saw the nerdy young man stop the Bringer's blade with his hand just as it connected with Anya's shoulder. They dealt with the Bringers quickly, but Dawn still felt uneasy. Buffy's hurt! She shouted surprised, She's still alive…but she's down, surrounded by the other slayers. Faith has the scythe now. Amanda, Kennedy, Chao An, Vi, Annabelle, and Rona are all that's left of the others. Dammit! They just killed Rona! Buffy's back up now…something's happening with Spike and the amulet Angel gave us…everyone out NOW! Load up on the bus out front!
They all made it onto the bus except Buffy and Spike, who would have been burned up anyway. Dawn had to forcibly hold Tara on the bus so that Giles could drive them out of the rapidly collapsing town. Willow spotted Buffy leaping from rooftop to rooftop and finally jumping and landing on top of the bus as they passed the last few buildings. When they were a safe distance away Giles stopped the bus and they all piled out, aside from Annabelle who was wounded and Vi who was taking care of her. The new crater of Sunnydale stopped, ironically at the city limit/population sign, they all stood there and looked on silently.
"Spike…?" Dawn asked.
"Dead." Buffy said after a short pause, "The amulet took the sunlight and used spike as a giant mirror ball it killed all the Turok-Han and I believe closed the hellmouth…he's a hero."
"Looks like the hellmouth is officially closed for business." Faith stated.
"There is another one in Cleveland…not to spoil the moment." Giles said
"We saved the world. Again." Xander added.
"We changed the world. I can feel them, Buffy. All over. Slayers are awakening everywhere." Willow said, awed at the feeling.
"We'll have to find them." Dawn said wrapping her arm around the redhead.
"We will." Willow said laying her head on her girlfriend's shoulder.
"Yes, because the mall was actually in Sunnydale, so there's no hope of going there tomorrow." Giles joked.
"We destroyed the mall? I fought on the wrong side!" Dawn whined sarcastically
"All those shops gone. The Gap, Starbucks, Toys "R" Us. Who will remember all those landmarks unless we tell the world about them?" Xander said in an over-dramatic voice.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us." Giles pointed out.
"Can I push him in?" Faith asked.
"You've got my vote." Willow agreed.
"I just want to sleep…for like a week." Faith added.
"I guess we all could, if we wanted to." Dawn aquiesed.
"Yeah. The First is scrunched, so... what do you think we should do, Buffy?" Willow asked
Yeah, B we aint the only chosen anymore. Just gotta live like a person. How's that feel?"
"Yeah, Buffy. What are we gonna do now?" Dawn asked.
Buffy just looked silently at the crater for a while with a soft smile while Tara leaned lightly against her, "First let's get back on the bus and get the wounded to a hospital. Then I guess we go visit Angel and his team until we can figure something out. Giles I need you to use whatever contacts you have left to cordone off that crater, call in as many favors as you need to, we'll get Riley and his team on it too. If we need to bring in a nearby coven as well. I don't wanna let anyone in there until we've checked it out."
The End…For Now
A/N: This is the end of this story. I have a couple ideas for a sequel, but it'll take some time. (The sequel will put more focus on Willow and Dawn's relationship). I it seemed like I kinda rushed this story…well I guess I did, this is meant to be more of a prequel. I have seen a lot of season seven rewrites and didn't necessarily wanna compete with them. Thank you to those who followed my story so far. I'll try to get the sequel up quickly.