Endgame

Title: Endgame
Pairing: B/G
Rating: NC-17
Author: manic, send feedback to manic1066@yahoo.com
Warnings: This is set after the finale so, spoilers for every season as well as a bit of season four of Angel.

*****

Looking around the immense building that Angel and company now occupied, Buffy felt unappreciated. She'd rid the world, at least for the foreseeable future, of the First, closed the Hellmouth, and for good measure, blown up Sunnydale. Never let it be said that she couldn't finish anything. She'd also changed the fate of the Slayers, awakening each and every girl that had the potential within. Woman's liberation unites she thought. The male dominion over the Slayers had ended. Mother Earth and all that stuff, she was finally been able to take that vacation she'd been promising herself. Cookies be damned, Krispy Kreme was the way to go she thought biting into the doughnut with relish and sipping her Mocha, Angel had a Coffee Kiosk for Christ's sake.

Buffy spent time in the Spa while Willow geeked out with Fred, Dawn bonded with Weasley over the library and Xander swapped war stories with Gunn. Even Jonathan had found Los Angeles exhilarating, spending most of his time down in Santa Monica visiting the comic store. The Potentials had dispersed to their various parts of the world back to their homes and families. The vampire population of the world was facing a serious decline. Kennedy remained with Willow, slaying and taking advantage of the nightlife. Faith and Wood departed for a road trip, right after Angel deleted all the warrants on her. All in all, Buffy thought, each of them had found their niche.

It had taken about a week before Buffy realized that membmember of the team had disappeared. She thought back to their arrival in Los Angeles. Giles had taken one look at the offices, announced he was going for coffee, and never returned. Her annoyance at Giles once again pulling his disappearing act completely negated the effects of her massage.

She enlisted Angel to track the errant Watcher down but to her surprise Angel had no success. With all the resources Angel had at his fingertips and all the supernatural help, none of them had done a fat lot of good. Giles had dropped off the face of the Earth. After a month of fruitless searching, Buffy put Giles on the backburner and focused on something more important, reacquainting herself with the shops on Melrose. She might have a chosen destiny and all that, but she could be trendy while doing so. Outfitting herself in the latest fashions Buffy found herself concentrating on the next chore, figuring out what to do next. It was obvious to her that Dawn needed to be in school. Her first year of high school a total loss, Dawn was adamant about not having to repeat her freshman year, complaining loudly that it wasn't her fault the school had shut down due to Hellmouth activities. She'd even gone as far as to blame Buffy. After all Dawn was loudly heard to proclaim at regular intervals, Buffy had been the one to blow up the school and she had been the guidance counselor. They'd both recoiled at the idea of moving to Cleveland and tackling yet another Hellmouth, after all it was Cleveland. A bit of doctoring of the school records and Dawn was ready to go, and Buffy was itching to travel. Dawn had been very understanding, Willow and Kennedy offered and just like that, Buffy was free to go.

So she did, moving from place to place, seeing the sights, and finding herself. Each time she passed through a city that housed a Slayer, they'd sought the other out. The first time it happened, Buffy chalked it up as coincidence. By the fifth time she'd come to realize that something more was happening. The Slayers were connected to one another. The spell Buffy had used, releasing the power to all, awakened something primal, a force, but not in the First Slayer bad hair kind of way. The Slayers were taking back the Earth. Still, Buffy felt incomplete. She'd even resorted to calling Kennedy and asking her if she felt the same void. Unfortunately, Kennedy didn't have a clue what Buffy was talking about. Buffy still felt as though she was missing something indefinable, but there. Snew new there was something else she needed.

Before she knew it, a year had passed and she'd traveled from one end of the World to the other. Coming back to Los Angeles felt right, but still empty. She managed to hide it for a few days, but found herself prowling the streets at night, searching. Returning to the house Willow, Kennedy and Dawn lived in one morning she found all three of them gathered around the table, waiting for her. Buffy sighed in annoyance, it looked as though she was in for some sort of well-meaning, but totally unnecessary intervention.

"Buffy," Willow began, "we've noticed that you're behaving, well, strangely." The three of them nodded in agreement at Willow's words.

Buffy helped herself to a banana and sat down, trying to keep from giggling at the serious faces before her. She decided to play clueless.

"Don't know what you mean, I feel fine," she replied.

The three exchanged earnest looks and tried again. "It's just that you're out every night until dawn Slaying," stated Dawn.

Kennedy interrupted, "I've been doing a great job. It feels like you don't appreciate my abilities. Just because you were the 'Chosen One' doesn't mean that you have all the clues. I know what I'm doing."

"That isn't it, I feel like Slaying, I need it. Not everything is about you Kennedy. You don't have a monopoly on Slaying. Last time I checked there were a few of us Slayers out there." Buffy replied annoyed and eating her banana.

Kennedy still looked upset, "I Slay, every night, what's wrong with what I'm doing?"

"Nothing."

"Well, stop checking up on me," Kennedy whined.

"I'm not," stated Buffy, trying to remain calm.

"It's just that, well, you're like you were when you came back…"

"From the dead?" Buffy stated.

"Well, yes," Willow replied.

Buffy felt just a little satisfaction, even after all the time that had passed; she could still pass on a little guilt trip to Willow.

"Last time I checked, I was still a Slayer. No offence, Kennedy," Buffy sent Kennedy a pointed look, "but I don't need your permission to do what I was born to do." With that, Buffy stood up and left the table, as far as she was concerned the conversation was over.

That evening, Buffy realized something strange, she hadn't felt the same pull towards Kennedy that she had towards all the other Slayers she'd come into contact with. In fact, all she'd really felt with Kennedy was a profound sense of annoyance. Kennedy bugged the shit out of her. Buffy tried to look at the siion ion objectively, but to no avail. Kennedy remained a pest. Finding no peace in the house, and trying not to alienate everyone, Buffy spent ever-increasing time out of the house, on the streets of Los Angeles.

One night, she found him.