No More: Prologue
by Freddy
Buffy and related characters belong to Joss. I don't own any of them. I don't make any money from this. This is all for fun.

NOTE "No More" is the first "episode" in a Altieverse third season. While all the past historey stands, anything can happen here no matter what happens in the actual shows third season. However, events from the third season might make their way into the altieverse. Don't worry. I'll try to stay as true to the show as I can, and I look foward to the REAL third season.

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Prologue
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"Memory Lane"

Buffy stepped off the bus and looked around. She couldn’t believe how much the place had changed. Sunnydale was still the exact same, but her perception of it had changed. Just as she was beginning to feel at home there all those terrible events had taken place, and now those memories loomed over the town. She would never be able to look at it the same way. She knew this because it had happened once before. Los Angeles, where she first discovered her abilities, or her curse as she now thought of it, was the same way. The vampires, the burned down gym, the place where her meager unaware life was changed forever. And now Sunnydale was a stranger too.

She sat down in the grass on the side of the road and glanced around her quiet surroundings. She laughed as she thought of the irony of the whole thing. A year and a half ago she had moved out here to get AWAY from the vampires. Away from being the chosen one, from being the one girl in the whole world who had the strength and the skill to kill vampires. Problem was that Quaint little Sunnydale was right on a hellmouth. Problem was that many vampires made their home in Sunnydale, including the Master. And waiting right there in the school library was her watcher, Rupert Giles. She giggled again when she thought of how confidently she had told him that her Slaying days were over. That she had retired.

The memories, good and bad alike, that she had been repressing for three long months washed over her. She remembered meeting Willow for the first time. Shy, soft-spoken, a red headed outsider with a talent for hacking her way around the net. She remembered running into Xander in the hallway. His direct brand of humor had lightened many a bad situation. She hated that they had been inadvertently drawn into her world of vampires, ghost and goblins, but she appreciated them as her dearest friends. They were her first true best friends. Who knows where they stood now. She took off three months ago and didn’t even bother with a postcard. They probably hated her.

She thought of Jesse, who she couldn’t save. The vampires turned him into a monster, and used him as bait to kill her. Xander had to drive a stake through his heart. They had been best friends. It had shaken Xander terribly. Angel, another failure. Her very own failure. She had fallen in love with the vampire with a soul. But that very love killed him as their reckless act of passion ripped his soul away from him leaving Angelus in his place. They should have thought that through. A tear formed. They should have known.

Angelus, the demon now in charge, tortured her, emotionally toyed with her, attacked her friends, and she couldn’t bring herself to kill him. Buffys eyes squinted shut as she beared the burdens of her decision. Jenny Calendar. Another tear dropped. The spunky computer teacher techno pagen that had captured the the heart and affection of Giles. Angelus snapped her neck without a second thought. Buffy had never resolved her feelings toward Jenny for her involvement with the curse that had given Angel his soul back. But she certainly didn’t want her to meet her fate in such a way. The result of Buffys failure, Jennys death was on her hands as much as Angelus’.

Then came the slap in the face. Angelus opened a portal into the hellmouth. Buffy and the vampire squared off, clashing swords. Kendra, the second slayer despite the laws of nature, battled Drew, but fell in her effort. Xander and Willow found a way to restore Angels soul thanks to a computer disk with the curse on it, Jennys last attempt to set things right. Angel did get his soul back, but Buffy had to run him through with her sword and send him into the portal. It was the only way to close it. Although they had a moment together before he made that sacrifice, it became three months of hurt, and still counting.

Bad matter became worse. Willow had been seriously injured. Buffy was framed for the death of Kendra. That’s why she skipped town without telling anyone. She only hoped they understood. She did call the hospital anynomelesly to check Willows condition, but she felt terrible for not being there for her. She felt terrible all around. Friends were dead, including the second slayer; Angel was in hell, her mother had found out about the whole slayer thing and kicked her out, she had been expelled from school, and framed for murder. She had to get away. She had to heal, and she had done that. Now was the time to come back and reconcile everything. To somehow make Sunnydale home again. These people, this place, meant so much to her. Buffy rose to her feet and headed to the heart of the hellmouth.


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