This is an imaginary story. Aren't they all?
--Alan Moore, Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?

The bus came to a stop, its brakes coughing, the solar panel on top 
shuddering as though it was about to fall off. The logo on its side 
declared it the property of Slay Ride Tours. The driver leaned out of 
his window and looked at the security booth.
"Hey! You gonna raise that thing or what?"
There was some rustling inside the security booth. Then, the gates 
slowly came open, and the bus drove through. Directly over the gates 
was a gilded sign. It read simply "SUNNYDALE."
The bus drove through deserted streets. Inside, the passengers oooed and 
aahed as they saw the landmarks they had read about so many times. 
There was the Sun Cinema, its marquee advertising "LOVE'S CHAMPION 
star ing Sunnydale's own Cordelia Chase." There was the espresso bar, 
and Ethan's Costume Shop. Everybody made sure to get a picture of The 
Bronze.
Finally, the bus came to a halt outside Sunnydale High School. 
Standing there was an old man, nearly circular in his dimensions, 
his thin white hair askew in the breeze. He smiled warmly as the 
passengers, young children all, came filing off the bus.
"All right, class, everybody pay attention," said the teacher as she 
stepped onto the pavement. "I want everybody facing this way, please...
now then. This is Mr. Wells, and he's been nice enough to let us take 
this field trip today. Everybody, say hello to Mr. Wells!"
"Hello, Mister Wells," the kids said severally.
"Good morning, children. My name is Mr. Wells, and I'd like to welcome 
you all to Sunnydale! Now, before we begin the tour, does anyone have 
any questions?"
A girl raised her hand. "Where's all the people?"
"Good question. Well, my dear, we've closed the town for two weeks to 
do some remodeling on the graveyards. After all, we can't have our 
vampires rising out of shabby mausoleums, can we?"
The children giggled at that.
"All right. As you can see, this is Sunnydale High School. This is where 
the story begins, and it's also where the story ends. Now then…who here 
knows what a Slayer is?"
Every child's hand shot up. Several of them began to recite the legend. 
"In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will fight the forces-"
Mr. Wells raised his hands for quiet. "Well, I see you've all been 
doing your homework! That's right. And does anyone remember the name of 
the Slayer who lived in Sunnydale?"
"BUFFY!" the kids all yelled.
"Very good! That's right. In March, 1997, long before any of you were 
born, Buffy Anne Summers came to live in the town of Sunnydale. It was 
here that she met her friends Xander, Willow and Cordelia, and it was 
here that she met her Watcher, Rupert Giles."
A little boy raised his hand urgently. "They met Anya too! In here!"
Mr. Wells nodded. "Yes, that's very true. But that wasn't until later. 
Now, who wants to see where the Principal was eaten?"



"…and this is spot where Buffy first met Angel," Mr. Wells said, leading 
the children through the alleyway behind the Bronze. "As hard as it is to 
believe, children, there was a time when people didn't believe in vampires. 
Did you know that?"
Some of them did, some of them didn't.
"Of course, this was a few years before the Cleveland Incident," Mr. Wells 
continued. "And definitely before The Los Angeles Blackout of 2004."
"When the sun went away?" a girl said.
"No, that was the Blackout of 2003. This was much different, more…well, 
undeniable, I guess you could say. Before the Slayers became known to all 
the world, both the Slayer and her prey stayed in the shadows. Many Slayers 
fought and died completely unremembered by the annals of history."
"Wow," one boy whispered.
"Wow indeed. Of course, the Watcher's Council, reformed after the first 
Sunnydale was destroyed, has done a fine job of reconstructing the 
information lost in the explosion at the London headquarters, but still, 
there are many Slayers lost to history. That's why we have the Tomb of the 
Unknown Slayer across town. In fact, that's a later stop on the tour, but 
first, let's go inside. I believe our Nerf Herder recreators are rehearsing 
today!"



"Here we have the Magic Box. Giles purchased this store after five or six 
previous owners were killed by vampires. After we left town, he put the 
store in the charge of his financial partner, Anya…"
"Mr. Wells?" the teacher asked. "Wasn't the Magic Box destroyed at the 
time of the final battle?"
"True, it was, but we took certain liberties with this reconstruction. 
Besides…" Mr. Wells patted the front door. "She would want it to be open and 
making money."
"She?"
"Anya." Mr. Wells smiled at the children. "Did your parents send you 
along with some cash for souvenirs?"



"Mr. Wells?" one of the girls asked. "What's that building?"
"That is the Rupert Giles Memorial Library," Mr. Wells replied. "Another of 
our liberties. After Mr. Giles' death, we thought it would be a fitting 
tribute to him."
"How did he die?" a boy asked.
"He died at home," Mr. Wells said. "In an armchair. He was very old, you 
see, older than I imagine even he thought he was ever going to get. It was 
many years after the dimensional rift in London, when Giles was captured 
and tortured by the reborn minions of Glorificus. After that happened, he 
retired from active duty as Buffy's Watcher and spent the rest of his days 
doing research for the council. One night, his wife came home and found 
him sitting in a chair with a copy of The Old Curiosity Shop in his lap."
"That's sad," one of the kids said.
"No, no. I can't imagine a more fitting end for the man. Actually, we have 
that very copy of the book in this library. We also have several books 
written by the heroes of Sunnydale. There's Winifred Burkle's thesis on 
dimensional physics…er…Dawn Summers' biography of her sister, of course, 
and many copies of the novels of A.L. Harris. We also keep DVDs of Cordelia 
Chase's oeuvre."
"What's an oeuvre?" one of the kids asked.
"All the movies she did."
"Ohhhh."



"And here we are! 1630 Revello Drive!" Mr. Wells led the children through 
the front door. "This is the place where the Slayers, the Scoobies and the 
Potentials spent the months before the final battle. In fact, we've 
furnished this room with the help of Dawn Summers herself."
"Wow!" a girl said. "Does Dawn come here a lot?"
"Every once in a while," Mr. Wells said. "She says she likes the memories, 
but at the same time, it can be a bit overwhelming. Besides, she has 
children and grandchildren to look after, including one girl who I 
understand is showing signs of Slayerhood."
"Is that common?" the teacher asked. "Two Slayers in the same family?"
"Who can say? There's so much we don't know about how it all works, and 
there's so much we've forgotten."
"Did Dawn ever get any powers?" a boy asked.
"Oh, no, not the way you think. But she fought alongside her sister and 
her friends for many months after the fall of Sunnydale. Eventually, though, 
Buffy and her sister settled down, and Dawn was away at college at the time 
of the Cleveland Incident. She grew into a very fine woman…one I'm proud 
to have known."



"If you'll look to your left and then your right, you'll see the childhood 
homes of A.L. Harris, 'Xander' to his friends, and Willow Rosenberg…."
"Willow's my favorite," a girl said. "My middle name's Willow!"
"And a very good name it is."
"What happened to her?"
"An' Xander? What happened to him?"
"Well, er…as I said, the Scooby Gang eventually settled in Cleveland, that 
being the site of the second Hellmouth. The Potentials all returned to their 
homes, those that had homes, with the exception of Noreen Kennedy."
"I thought Kennedy was her first name," the teacher said.
"If my first name was Noreen, I'd tell people it was Kennedy too," Mr. Wells 
smirked. "Anyway, after the Cleveland incident, Xander and Willow, always best 
friends, went their separate ways for a bit. Xander tried his hand at writing 
while supporting himself with construction work during the day, while Willow 
moved in with Kennedy and completed their education. They kept in touch, and 
Willow helped Xander during an rather nightmarish occurrence where Caleb, 
the man who took his eye, rose from the grave bent on revenge…"
Several of the children shuddered.
"Don't worry, it's all right, Xander defeated him. A couple of years later, 
quite by accident, they both ended up in Boston. Willow had, by this time, 
had a very nasty breakup with Kennedy, and…" Mr. Wells hesitated. "The rest 
of the story is a bit complicated, actually…"
"What happened?" the kids insisted.
"Well, Willow and Xander eventually fell in love with one another. The problem 
was that Willow was also in love with a young lady from the area named Maire, 
and…well…they all lived happily ever after, you might say."



"What about Faith?" a girl asked as they approached the graveyard.
"Yeah! Faith was cool!"
"Faith…well." Mr. Wells took off and cleaned his glasses. "After the Cleveland 
Incident, she found herself in the position of leading the Slayers. It was a 
burden she did not bear with any great ease. Combine that with her somewhat 
haphazard approach to personal relationships…suffice to say that she was rather 
unhappy for much of her life. That didn't really change until her child was born."
"With Gunn?"
"Goodness, you children do know a lot about the Scooby Gang's sordid dealings…"
"I saw it on TV, on th' Slayer show."
"Ah, yes, I forgot, they did do some sort of miniseries based on Dawn's book, 
didn't they…well, yes, at any rate, Charles Gunn, a colleague of Angel's, was 
the father of Faith's child. Upon the birth of little Allonna, Faith stepped 
down as leader of the Slayers. Unfortunately, before too long, she had to step 
back up. You see, she'd ceded her position to Kennedy, and…I'm afraid Kennedy 
eventually went bad. By the end of it, Faith was forced to kill Kennedy and 
retake her position. She died a few years later during the outbreak of SIMS."
They came to a large monument, the largest in the graveyard. Atop a gleaming 
white pedestal stood a statue of a girl. The girl was nude and featureless, 
like a mannequin, except for the stake she held in one hand and the axe she 
held in the other. On the base was an inscription.
HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY, A SLAYER, KNOWN BUT TO GOD.
"Remember them, children," Mr. Wells murmured. "You are alive because of those 
who died to save the world, time and again."
There was a moment of silence.



"…and here we are back at the school," Mr. Wells said. "This is where the 
fall of Sunnydale began, where Buffy and the Slayers marched into the mouth of 
Hell itself and defeated the forces of the First Evil."
"And Spike!" one girl said.
"Yes, he helped too. He certainly did."
"Mr. Wells?" another girl asked. "Do you know what happened to Buffy?"
"Yes, she ran across the top of the school and landed on the bus and-"
"No," the girl said. "In Cleveland."
Mr. Wells was quiet for a moment.
"Callie," the teacher said, "Nobody-"
"Nobody knows," Mr. Wells said. "Nobody knows for sure. I can only tell you 
what I believe happened. As you know, the Hellmouth was open and has risen 
to the surface of the Earth. It seemed that all of Buffy's old enemies were 
there; the Master, Adam, Mayor Wilkins…" He barked out a harsh laugh. "Even 
Warren Meers made an appearance. It was a conflagration like no other, taking 
place between dimensions, where death held no dominion.
"Riley Finn and his crew held back the hordes of Ubervamps while Willow and 
Tara cast one more spell together. Jenny Calendar fought side by side with 
Lindsey MacDonald, Spike and Drusilla fought one another to a standstill, 
and Alan Doyle defeated Moloch in hand-to-hand combat. And at the heart of 
it all, there were four warriors. On the side of Hell, there was the First, 
finally made flesh, and Angelus, finally free of his prison. On the side of…
well, the side of life…there was Buffy and Angel.
"No one's quite sure how they did it, but the Hellmouth was closed. Forever.
At the end of it, those who had risen from their graves returned to them…and 
many more were dead. We lost the Finns that day…Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok 
Clan...Amy Madison…so many Slayers…and Buffy and Angel were gone.
"The strange thing is, nobody was sad about that. It was as though we knew, 
somehow, wherever they had gone, they were all right.
"You ask me what happened? I think they were rewarded. I think they're together 
somewhere out there, and they're living happily ever after. That's what I think."



A short time later, the children were filing onto the bus.
"Thanks very much for your time, Mr. Wells."
"Oh, no trouble at all, I assu-" Mr. Wells felt something tugging at his pant 
leg. He looked down and found a small boy looking up at him. "Did you have 
another question, young man?"
"What happened to Andrew?"
Mr. Wells crouched next to the boy. "My goodness, no one ever asks about him…"
"I wanna know," the boy said. "Please?"
"Andrew…" Mr. Wells smiled. "Andrew grew up. He matured. He got his act 
together and fought the good fight. And, eventually…he became a storyteller."
The boy nodded. "Thank you."
"Not at all," said Andrew Wells, rising to his full height. "Please come 
again, all of you. Come back soon!"
Andrew watched the bus pull away. He stood in the middle of the street for a 
long time, watching the bus disappear into the distance.
"Come back soon."

The End

All of this is copyright Joss Whedon, except the stuff that isn't.