Author's Note: Done for the 20th Anniversary Challenge on Twisting the Hellmouth. Alternative realities can have their own anniversaries, too.
Seated behind her desk in the large office of the Scottish castle headquarters for the New Council, a woman in her mid-thirties held up her filled glass as the grandfather clock along the side wall began chiming the hours.
Toasting out loud, "Here's to you, Miss Chase," Buffy Summers drank her premium champagne in honor of Cordelia the Vampire Slayer.
Putting down her empty glass onto the desktop, Buffy had to admit to herself that she had no real idea of exactly when she'd been saved from death on that Sunnydale night twenty years ago from today's date. It wasn't like she'd checked her watch then, what with being in total shock and still covered from head to toe with vampire ash in the alley where a high-school teenager had been grabbed off the street when walking to the nearest convenience store from her new Revello Drive home.
Though, Buffy still had enough strength of mind to refuse to accept the hopeful suggestion from the other young woman who'd just come out of nowhere and stabbed that fanged creep with a pointy stick, "Your mugger wearing a monster mask spontaneously self-combusted, that's all, okay? Why don't you just go home and forget it?"
"Not a chance!" Buffy glared at the annoyed girl she'd recognized as the head of Sunnydale High's cheerleader team. Cordelia Chase, that was her name. Well, this Cordelia better have some really good answers about the latest bit of weirdness, or…um…there'd be some prime Buffy pouting, at the very least.
Around then, Cordelia did her well-practiced exasperated eye-roll and grumbled, "Fine! Meet me in the school library first thing in the morning tomorrow, if you insist. However, you might not like what you get told, so don't say I didn't warn you."
In her workplace two decades later, Buffy Summers wryly smiled. That's when her life changed forever, the next day. Meeting the others: Giles, Xander, Willow, Jesse, and of course Cordelia, listening in disbelief to the British-accented delivery of the Slayer prophecy, plus all the rest culminating with Buffy becoming the newest Scooby Gang member.
The memories went through a woman's head once more, including the first time she'd staked her own personal vamp. All right, all right, so a California girl had taken that tall, dark, handsome (once you got past the enormous forehead), mysterious stranger by complete surprise when he'd showed his true nature by shifting into game face while confronted by the Scoobies tired of that brooding guy's vague hints of assistance after stalking into the school library where they'd been waiting.
It still counted, all the same, even if Buffy in a panic had grabbed one of Cordy's spare stakes off the library table and got what's-his-name – Andy? Antonio? A-something? – directly in the back. Poof, one vampire down for her. All she needed was to do it again about a few hundred times more and Buffy would easily match Cordelia in defeating the Hellmouth's demonic enemies.
That was the reason, frankly, for picking out her Halloween costume a couple months later. It'd been a come-as-you-aren't night, after all, and Buffy certainly wasn't a Vampire Slayer…not until that Ethan Rayne jerk did his Chaos spell later on in the evening.
Now, that had been a major bout of oddness. For starters, Buffy had been the big hero, battling with ease various malevolent creatures of the dark. Even better, Cordy was the completely ordinary one then…though nobody dared to mention it afterwards. Making this Slayer even grumpier was how her replacement for the night had finally eliminated one definite pain in the butt, that big-mouthed, pomaded, blood-drinking demon otherwise known as Spike or William the Bloody.
This was just one event of the ensuing years which an adult Buffy recollected for some time in her office. Eventually, she had to acknowledge the most painful of them all, that occasion below Sunnydale when a weary beyond belief Cordelia said goodbye to them all and heroically used a mystical amulet to destroy the Turok-Han vampires and triumph for once and all against the First Evil.
That victory came with a bitter cost, the third and final death of their beloved Slayer.
Sniffling in her chair, Buffy reached for the tissue box on her desk and dabbed at her teary eyes. It still hurt now, but it'd also energized the surviving Scoobies into building up the New Council and the thousands of Slayers worldwide protecting humanity's home.
Dropping the damp tissue in the wastebasket, Buffy blinked at the abrupt knock at her office door. Without waiting for permission to enter, Dawn Chase bustled into the room and beamed at her adoptive older sibling.
"Dinner's ready! We're all waiting for you to start off the twenty-year celebrations, so get your butt moving!"
"Don't be so disrespectful, Dawn! I'm coming, but you better remember who's your boss! You really want to be teamed up with Andrew in the newbie Slayer orientation next Wednesday? I think the last time he did it, our pet dweeb broke his own previous record in comparing the girls' powers to the Star Wars Jedi abilities!"
Supremely confident she'd get away with it, Dawn stuck out her tongue at Buffy and then beat a swift retreat out of the office, pursued by a laughing big sister now in a much better mood.
Author's Note: Wonder if an imaginary adaptation of BtVS counts as a crossover… Inspired by Charisma Carpenter's failed audition for the character of Buffy Summers. Then again, in this substitute universe, Joss Whedon was so impressed by her performance that he changed the entire show to star none other than Queen C.