Buffy Summers in the 25th Century

Disclaimer: I own none of the recognized characters and make no profit on the following story.

"…Live for me," Buffy Summers finished telling her sister and moved to jump off the tower into the glowing circle that was the center of the blending of universes that was caused by Dawn's Blood.

"Buffy! No!" Dawn screamed as she grabbed her sister's hand. She was the cause of this. She should be the one to jump.

Buffy turned back, "Dawn, listen to me. Even if you jump, how much more time would I have? You can have full life. Me? I'll be lucky if I live out the year. It makes sense in so many ways for me to be the one to jump." She pulled her hand free and started running. Dawn could only look on in horror, and with tears running down her face, she watched as her sister jumped.

About a mile and a half away the leading edge of the Key Effect hit the event horizon of the Hellmouth. Since the Hellmouth could be thought of as a weakness in the fabric of the universe, one would think that the Effect would just gobble it up and move on. The problem was, the 'weak point' was actually more of a 'dense point'. So when the Effect hit it, the Effect stopped growing and began pushing against it. The rest of the effect wave kept going and, of course, this created tension. The Effect pushed and Hellmouth stayed put. Unimaginable energies built up. In the end, neither the unstoppable force nor the immovable object gave way, instead the universe slipped. When that happened energy was released, energy on a scale seldom seen since the Big Bang. Fortunately, for the Sol Solar System, if not a good chunk of our spiral arm, the vast percentage of this energy went into flipping the Key Effect back on itself, freezing everything inside it at the instant of the flip. The piddling remainder was converted into heat and light, the equivalent of 1.2 giga-tons of TNT.

Lilah Morgan was walking along beside Gavin Park and was growing tired of listening to him prattling on. She stopped by her secretary's desk to waste a moment or two so he would pull ahead and she wouldn't have to listen to him anymore. He reached Linwood Monroe's door and was going to knock when a brilliant flash lit up under all of the doors on the east side of the building, and screams could be heard coming from most of the offices. She ran to the nearest door, ran the back of her hand along it to check for heat, she found none so she threw the door open. Morgan Riley, who owned the office, was on his knees with both hands over his eyes screaming. Lilah could have cared less, framed in the window, in the general direction of Sunnydale a gigantic fireball was still climbing into the sky. Lillah stared at as it continued to climb, only when it started to flatten as it hit the top of the atmosphere did she turn and leave the office. Her timing was good, as the ground shock hit at that point like an earthquake. She stood in the door way and waited for it to pass. Some objects fell off of shelves, and one or two light covers crashed down, but that was all of the damage from the shock. She made sure she was in the hallway and away from windows, in case the air blast got this far. Looking at her receptionist she said, "Monica? I'm giving you the rest of the day off. I don't think you need to worry about coming in tomorrow." For herself, she had a bottle of hundred year old scotch she had been saving for a special occasion. She thought the end of the world qualified.

The President of the United States looked at the screen in front of him as the fireball finished its expansion. He sighed. There were two things he was going to have to do in the next couple of minutes, well probably two things. One would leave people damning his name for all eternity; the other might bring hope for those who were left. The red vid-phone on his desk buzzed to indicate an incoming call. Good, it would save the time of calling him. Hitting the accept button he sat back in his desk as Riley Finn appeared on his screen. "Mr. President, that isn't an attack, it's the Hellmouth. You can't retaliate!" Riley all but screamed.

The President shook his head sadly, "I know it's the Hellmouth, Riley. Besides it was a single flash, so it wasn't a nuke. But, it probably isn't going to matter. With our stealth and the new Trident missiles we probably could decapitate most nations, or baring that we could use the Tridents to take out most of the nukes before they launched. I don't think my fellow heads of state are going to risk that I'm going to be reasonable about whoever just took out a good chunk of Southern California.

The red phone began ringing; the President picked it up and listened. Pulling a card out of his pocket he read a string of numbers into the phone and then after acknowledging permission he replaced the receiver.

Riley Finn started to pale as he saw what the President was doing. When the President had finished with the call he turned back to Riley and began speaking, "NORAD has picked up launches from Russia, China, and North Korea. We expect two to five launches from Iran, but the target will be Israel. They will respond and destroy most of the Middle East. I'll be honest with you, I'm glad you have two full teams at the new base with you. That girl you met down in Belize is there too, right?"

Riley nodded, "Sir, we'll probably be able to ride out the attack, but we have less than a month's food laid in. It won't be enough to ride out the fallout."

"I know," the President said. He reached into the top right desk drawer and started punching numbers into the key pad he had there. "Do you remember Capitan William Rodgers?"

"Buck Rodgers?" Riley asked in a confused voice, "The astronaut?" The President nodded.

"Sure it was a big story back when I was growing up. He kind of inspired me to join the army. But he died over a decade ago."

The President shook his head, "He didn't. Oh, we thought he did, but when we really examined the last of the telemetry from Ranger 3 we discovered that although his life signs were so low as to not exist; they were there. So, we studied the process and were able to duplicate it". He hit the final button and a ten second count down began. "I'm glad I'm not separating you from your love, Riley. God bless and good luck."

"What are you talking about? Mr. President?" Riley's eyes were wide in terror, "What did you…" He never finished, suddenly the whole screen went white, when it cleared Riley fin was still sitting in his chair, a white coating of frost covered him. His eyes stared sightlessly out of the screen. The President looked at the green icon flashing at the bottom of the screen indicating that the cryogenic suspension was successful and that the sensors that would trigger a homing beacon were working. He smiled and sat back in his chair. He was still smiling ten minutes later when a 200 kiloton warhead detonated three thousand feet over his head.

Faith was about to force the door to her cell and get the fuck out of cell. She didn't know what that bright flash had been, or the earthquake that had come a couple of minutes later, but it couldn't be good. She had just cocked her foot back to kick open the door when a voice said from behind her, "I think I might have a better deal for you kid."

She whirled and saw a short dark haired man in really bad clothes. Faith didn't much care what she wore, as long as it fit and didn't slow her down, but if she was a guy she wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit "Which is? And who are you?"

"Names Whistler," the fashion reject replied.

"B mentioned you; she also suggested that I rip your guts out if we ever ran into each other."

"We didn't exactly hit it off," the balance demon agreed.

"What's your deal?" Faith repeated.

"It's the end of the world, mostly."

Faith grunted, "B dropped the ball?"

"Not exactly, things just worked out different from what they were supposed to. The Powers want to offer you a trip. You'll survive this, and be in a position to carry on protecting what's left of humanity."

"Sounds more like getting dicked to me," Faith replied, "Why should they care? I die someone else gets stuck with the gig."

Whistler shook his head, "There won't be any more Slayers if you die now. In the next two hours every potential on the planet is going to die. Mostly thanks to the Watcher's Council sticking them in major metropolitan areas. A couple of hundred years from now, the pool will be replenished, then, if you die, the Slayer will pass like normal."

"How many hundred years from now?" Faith asked.

"Five."

Faith sat back on her bed, her face looking almost queasy, "Why not just get B to do it?" She always was a lot better at this than me."

"Two reasons, one, she's already going to be there, and two, the Slayer Line passes through you, not her."

Faith looked up at him for an explanation, "Once a Slayer, always a Slayer Faith. But, there is only one line, and you are at the head of it."

"All right, I'll do it."

Whistler held out his hand and she took it, and they both disappeared into time.

Angel was surprised when he exited the portal from Paylea and found himself in a cave rather than back in LA. He turned to Cordelia and asked, "What gives?"

Cordelia winced and said, "I had a vision while I was checking out if I had forgotten anything. Earth is gone Angel."

Angel frowned, while the others looked on in shocked confusion. "What do you mean, gone?"

"The Hellmouth blew. That started a nuclear war. It's all gone Angel," she choked.

"Buffy?" He husked.

"I don't know how, but they aren't dead. They are going to be popping up in about five hundred years, and they are going to need help," She answered.

"How," Wesley asked.

"I'm not sure. But I think it has something to do with how the Hellmouth blew," the tall brunette answered.

"No, if they are popping up in five hundred years, how are we supposed to help them. I mean Angel will still be around, and maybe Groo. But the rest of use will be long dead."

Cordelia gave Wes a small smile, "Two days in this cave equals five hundred years back home. We'll all be there."