Summary: After the battle of the First Evil, Buffy while trying to escape the crumbling building falls into the Hellmouth. She wakes to find herself back in the Master's cave and back in her sixteen year old body. Can she make things better? Can she change her destiny? Her friend's destiny? Her mom's destiny?

Pairings: Buffy/Xander Dawn/Faith

A/U: Alternate Universe from Prophecy Girl on.

Disclaimer: Disney owns Buffy.

Prologue

May 16, 1997 – Friday

Master's Cave, Hellmouth

The last thing Buffy remembered she was trying to escape the Hellmouth. The building was crumbling around her and then suddenly she was falling backwards, back into the Hellmouth. She bid a silent goodbye to her sister and her friends.

The next thing Buffy knew she was waking up. She had no idea when she was or where she was as she looked up past Xander and Angel's face, who were looking at her with concern, and up at the ceiling of a cavern.

Buffy brought her attention back to Xander and Angel. As she wondered where she was, she also wondered what Angel was doing there. She had sent back to Los Angeles to prepare in case she failed. She slowly sat up.

"Careful," Xander said as he helped the blonde Slayer into a seated position.

"Where am I?" Buffy coughed.

"The Master's cave," Angel answered.

Buffy looked at Angel and frowned. The Master's Cave? Wasn't that where she had been when she had fought the First. Well sort of anyways? She wasn't sure if the Seal that had led into the Hellmouth had been exactly where the cave had been or if the Seal had opened into a different part of the cavern that the Hellmouth occupied. "The Master's cave?" she repeated. "Is this the same cavern that the Seal opens into or a different one? And how did I get here?"

Xander and Angel glanced at each other for a moment. "What Seal?" Xander asked.

Buffy looked at her friend and she studied his face. Her eyes began to go wide in realization when she saw how young her friend looked. On top of that he was no longer sporting an eye-patch, that he had both of his eyes. She quickly deduced that somehow, someway that she had been transported not from one part of the Hellmouth to the other. But she had been transported in time.

Buffy was now sure that this was just after the Master had drank from her and left her in a pool of water to drown, six years ago. "Wow," she said. "I haven't been in this part of the Hellmouth since I was drowned by the Master six years ago. I wonder why I am back here."

Angel and Xander looked at Buffy strangely wondering if the Master had done something to her other than feeding on her and drowning her.

Buffy glanced around the cavern. Her memories said Dawn should have been here with them. "Where is Dawn?" she asked.

"Who is Dawn?" Angel asked wondering who Dawn was.

Buffy glanced back at Angel as she began to understand. It was one of the many memories that had been implanted in her mind by the monks. "She's my sister," she answered. "But you wouldn't know that since the monks don't create her body for another three years. Assuming I am right and this is just after I was drowned."

"What are you talking about?" Xander asked looking at his friend like she was crazy.

Buffy looked at her friend. It was something she would have worry about later. For if she was right about when this was, that meant the Master had just gone up. She had to stop him first and then she would worry about other things. She slowly got to her feet. "It doesn't matter, not right now anyways." She started for the entrance to the cavern. "Let's go," she called over her shoulder.

Angel and Xander nodded and the three of them left the cave.

Sunnydale High School

As they headed for the school the past several vampires that Buffy dusted with ease. "How do you know where the Master's going?" Xander questioned his friend.

Buffy gave Xander a secretive smile as she looked at him. "I know," she answered.

They strolled into the school and down the corridor to the door marked Roof Access. Buffy knew without looking that the lock had been broken and that the door was ajar. "Angel, keep the rest of the vampires off me," Buffy said looking at the vampire. "Xander, I need you to find me a sledgehammer and meet me in the library."

"Right," Xander agreed as he hurried away.

Buffy started up the stairs and out onto the roof. She immediately saw the Master right where she had expected him to be at the skylight that looked into the library. "Yes ... come forth," he said giddily. "My child ... Come into my world."

Buffy smirked as she strolled up behind him. "I don't think it's yours just yet," she echoed the words she had spoken the first time she faced the vampire.

The Master turned to face the Slayer unable to believe that she was still alive. "You ... are dead."

"I may be dead, but I'm still pretty," Buffy quipped with a small chuckle at the memory. "Which is more than I can say for you."

"You were destined to die!" he cried. "It was written."

Buffy smirked. "I won't permanently die for a long time," she told him. "In fact you don't get that privilege. My one true death was when I died for my sister, so that she may live. In your cavern I drowned, yes, but while technically I died long enough to call the next Slayer, I wasn't truly dead since I was revived with CPR."

The Master reached out suddenly, clutching the air as though it were her. He locked eyes with her and stared at her, mesmerizingly. "Come here."

"Sure!" Buffy said with a chuckle. She moved quicker than he had expected. She moved with the speed and confidence of a Slayer that had seven years under her belt. She grabbed him by the throat and before he could react, she tossed him through the skylight toward the broken table below. She jumped through the skylight after him. "Xander!" she called out. "The sledgehammer."

The Master landed on the upended shard of the table and dusted, leaving behind only his bones.

Xander ran over to his friend and handed her a sledgehammer he had found in the maintenance shed of the school. Why the school had a sledgehammer he would never know.

Buffy began swinging the sledgehammer time and again grinding the Master's bones to dust. And then everything stopped. There was a rending kind of shriek from the Hellmouth and the demonic tentacles withdrew. She looked up at everyone as they all stared at her and what was left of the Master's bones.

Angel joined them just as everyone gathered in the middle of the room. "The vampires?" Giles asked.

"Gone," Cordelia answered.

"The Master?" Angel wondered, though he could see clearly what Buffy had done.

"Dead," Giles said as he glanced at the remains of the bones. "And the Hellmouth has closed." He turned to Buffy. "Buffy?"

Buffy burst out crying, not for what had just happened. But for everything she had lost. The weight of it coming crashing down on her. Six years gone in the blink of an eye. Her sister gone, having not yet been sent to her. She had to make sure Dawn was sent to her, it was the one thing she didn't want to change. She wanted to do right by Dawn this time around. She wanted to fulfill the promise she had made, to show her sister the world.

"I'm sorry. It's been a really weird day," Buffy said as she got her sobs down to a couple of sniffles.

Xander smiled at Buffy before looking at the others. "Yeah, Buffy died and everything."

"Wow. Harsh," Willow said.

Buffy looked at Willow and then Ms. Calendar. She intended to talk to Ms. Calendar and see if the teacher could train Willow with the magic. Maybe with Ms. Calendar's help, Willow wouldn't get addicted.

"I should have known that wouldn't stop you," Giles said, proudly.

"Well, what do we do now?" Ms. Calendar wondered.

Giles shrugged. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd really like to get out of this library. I hate it here."

Xander nodded. "I hear there's a dance over at the Bronze. Could be fun ..."

"Yeah!" Cordelia said in agreement.

"Buffy?" Willow said.

"You guys go ahead. There is some stuff I have to do," Buffy said.

"What about him?" Ms. Calendar asked looking at the remains of the Master's bones.

Buffy looked back at the Master's shattered remains. "Bury him. Other than that, we don't have to worry about him. He won't be coming back. No revivication ritual will bring him back, now."

Giles looked at Buffy wondering how she knew about the revivication ritual.

Summers Home

That night Buffy sat at her desk writing down everything she could remember.

Angel losing his soul because I slept with him.

Ms. Calendar dying at Angel's hands.

Kendra dying at Drusilla's hands

Angel going to Hell

Faith going bad

Cruciamentum

The Mayor turning into a giant demon snake

Oz leaving Willow

Adam and the Initiative

Riley leaving me

Dawn

Glory/Ben

Mom's tumor

Warren, Jonathon and Andrew

Dawn's kleptomania

Willow addicted to Magic

Tara's death

Willow nearly destroying the world.

Spike going crazy when he got his soul

Bringer's killing Potentials and their Watchers

Watcher's Council blown up

Spike's trigger

Being kicked out of my home

Dawn's betrayal

Buffy knew one thing she didn't want to change. Not yet anyways and that was Dawn. She would bide her time and wait till the monks had created her sister before she would go after Glory and Ben. She planned on being a better sister than she had been. Till then she was going to make things better for everyone, or at the very least try too.