1.

Summers residence Cleveland, OH

(2263)

Buffy stretched after her morning run. It had become a habit over the last year or so since the word got out that the original slayer was back on Earth, and the demon population on the planet had gone quiet. Even vampires were laying low as to avoid her. The reduction in demonic activity also meant that the hellmouth in Cleveland had gone quiet as well.

After finishing her cool down stretches she walked up the driveway to see her mother on the porch with a PADD and two mugs of steaming coffee. Buffy took a seat next to her mother who handed her a mug and Buffy took a long smell of the rich beverage, "Thanks mom," she said happily before bringing the mug to her lips, "Where's Dawn? She's usually up by now."

Joyce sighed, "She caught a transport to New York this morning. Apparently there's a new type of flu popping up and a Doctor Skaark asked for her to consult."

Buffy chuckled. Only Dawn could get a Vulcan doctor to call her to consult.

Joyce handed the PADD to Buffy, "This came for you this morning. I kind of miss old fashioned mail."

Buffy took the PADD and laughed at her mother, "Welcome to the twenty-third century."

"Well," Joyce said as she stood up, "I'm going to go make breakfast. Have fun with your mail." She planted a kiss on the top of her eldest daughter's head before leaving her alone on the porch.

Buffy missed Starfleet, but she was inwardly grateful to get this chance to have her mother in her life again. For too many years seeing her mother dead on the couch had been her final memory of her. She thought about how she now knew that she wasn't looking at her mother, but a copy using the same device they used when her slay didn't leave a corpse, but one was needed usually for political purposes. Still that pain was worth it to have her here now alive and healthy. According to Dawn she would be around for a long long time. Still she marveled about her mother's true age. She played her part of fitting in perfectly. She thought about her parent's divorce. It was inevitable really. At some point her father would have wondered why he was aging and she wasn't.

The last three years had been a blessing. She had a home with her family, her mother had recently gotten an educational equivalency certificate and was enrolled in university as a history major. Not that she needed the credits, she had seen more history than who knows how many generations. While her mother and grandmother still considered her to be quite young; she was two hundred and eighty-two years old, and some of her thoughts really made her feel her age. She had seen countless friends and lovers age and die while she stayed locked in the same body that she had almost three centuries ago.

Pulling herself from her thoughts, Buffy activated the PADD to find a video letter from La'an.

Captain Summers,

I trust this finds you well. I just wanted to inform you that Una has been promoted to captain of the U.S.S. Yorktown. Captain Pike has promoted me to first officer. I'm looking forward to learning the ropes from him and maybe getting a command of my own one day. I'm sorry about the short length of this letter, and I hope to see you in uniform again soon.

Commander La'an Noonien Singh out.

Buffy smiled. She was glad to hear La'an was doing well. After her ordeal Willow made sure she had a permanent registration at the I.W.C. in case there were ever any issues with her near slayerness as well as a place where people would not judge her based solely on her name.

She was about to go join her mom in the kitchen when a shuttle set down on the street outside the house. She was had decided to ignore it and walk inside until she saw Sunnydale marked on the shuttle's side with a 1687 beneath it. This was a shuttle from her old ship since all the Serenity's shuttlecraft were named after locations of hellmouths.

The engine cut off and the door opened revealing Willow in full admiral's uniform exiting the vehicle.

"Willow," Buffy said, "This is a surprise."

"It wouldn't have been if you'd answered your communicator," Willow retorted as she embraced her friend. "How about we go somewhere and talk?"

Buffy led her friend into the house where Joyce came out of the kitchen, "Buffy, what's going on? Oh, Hello Willow."

"Hi Miss Summers," Willow said, "Sorry to drop in, but I need to talk to Buffy."

"What's up Wills?"

Willow smiled at her friend, "Get your uniform out of moth balls, I have a mission for you."

Planet Malea VI

(One week later)

Smoke filled the cockpit of her shuttle as Captain Buffy Summers tried to coax it up into the atmosphere. She came here looking for a demon cell to get information from, but they were well armed and organized. Using cobbled together fighters they had chased her out of their ramshackle spaceport and were firing on her as she attempted to leave the planet.

Just as she was about to break free of the planet her impulse engine blew out and the shuttle began falling towards the planet. The Serenity was too far away to pull her out. She was on her own. Knowing there wasn't a way to get away with this she kicked open the communication channels, "This is Captain Buffy Summers. I'm going down. Tell my mom and Dawn I love them. Summers out.

She fought with the controls using the maneuvering thrusters to try and level her descent as the ground came up closer to meet her. She knew what she was getting into when she accepted this mission from Willow despite her mother's protestations. She just hoped it wouldn't hurt to much when she hit. "I'm sorry." Were the last words she managed to get out before the shuttle crashed into the planet's surface before erupting into a fireball.

A/N: I know it's short, but I wanted to get this intro out of the way before I could get to the meat of the story. I don't get as much time to write as I would like, but I have the story outlined already so it's just a matter of fleshing it out.