-Chapter Forty-Three-

Where Do We Go From Here?

The sun had set, quite a few times after the battle for planet Earth, a day the Earth had called Armageddon day, Clark had returned to Earth after his beating from Darksied with the pain still piercing his chest at the thought of never seeing Buffy again, it was the same pain he felt when he had found her body in the Phantom Zone. As he stood at the grave side, as Clark Kent, Zatanna had made a spell to copy Clark into a Superman copy to stand with the other Leaguers at the graveside, the President and his Secret Service making an appearance to pay their respects to the leader of the group of girls who had saved him. The grave site sat just a bit away from the now destroyed castle surrounded by Slayers and Wiccans and Buffy's friends, Willow sobbing against Kennedy, Xander holding a Toy Dawn in his hand sat looking down at the graveside water dripping from her doll eyes like tiny droplets of tears, Giles stood stony as did Faith as they both looked at the grave stone and all Clark could think was how this was his fault. She had jumped in the way of that Omega Beam because of him; Willow had told him of the vision she had shown Buffy, the vision of his death that must have been why she had pushed him away a few months back, they had just been getting on track. Why did she have to do it?

He stood looking down at the tiny little box in the ground that was meant to symbolise Buffy, there was no body in it of course, just the ash and few things that reminded them of Buffy inside. Xander had placed a lolly pop inside, strawberry, her favourite she always used to suck on them in high school. Willow had put a top Buffy always liked of hers, Faith put in a stake, Satsu put in her lip gloss knowing Buffy had liked it, Giles had put in, well, it was something Slayerish and monsters something they all agreed wasn't Buffy but he chuckled saying that was the point near going into tears as he thought of the inside joke that no one seemed to get but him. Dawn had put in Buffy's stuffed big Mr Gordo which she had saved from Sunnydale before it had collapsed, she had kept it much to Buffy's displeasure her excuse being Buffy was too old for it, but then so was Dawn. The Justice Leaguers had put something in as well as a way to honour Buffy they had placed a Justice League Membership card for her, they had been making them up. Angel had put in the ring he had given Buffy when they dated, though the others had argued against him being at the funeral, they had allowed him to put something in, Clark could see him skulking in the shadows of the trees walking away into the shadows. It had taken a while for Clark to figure out what to put in there that reminded him of Buffy he placed a couple of things inside, mainly a red Kryptonite ring he found in a jewellery shop in Smallville reminding him of what she had done for him. She had saved him and this time it had cost her her life.

"Mr Kent," the Superman copy called as everyone began to disperse from the graveside, Willow and the Wiccan dropping the soil down ceremoniously through magic. Clark turned to face the mirror image of himself who walked over to him solemnly, "I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," Clark nodded shaking his hand.

"I am too Mr Kent," the President replied shaking Clark's hand, "I just wish to tell you all the people in the Twilight Organisation will be dealt with accordingly thanks to the evidence you have brought in. I hear she was a sensational woman."

"She was," Clark smiled meekly, "thank you Mr President."

The President nodded sheepishly not knowing what to say to the man concerning what he had lost. "Also Superman if you're not too busy I would like to discuss sanctioning your Justice League as legal."

"Thank you Mr President," Superman smiled, "but I'm afraid it may have to be another time perhaps. We've got a lot of work rebuilding the planet."

"Indeed," he replied.

"Mr President," Superman nodded turning to Clark, "Mr Kent."

Clark nodded as he watched himself rocket into the air disappearing from view as he flew into the sky into nothing. Soon enough the President and the other leaguers left all giving their condolences leaving just Clark and the Scoobies, the Slayers all returning to the underground bunker beneath the castle they were using as their accommodation.

"So what are you going to do?" Clark asked as they looked at the ruins of the Slayer HQ.

"We are revealed to the world," Giles said sheepishly cleaning his glasses, "everyone knows of the Slayers friends and foes. The President is putting us forth among the United Nations as a Separate Organization to deal with supernatural threats."

"So we'll be working with Government?" Willow asked curiously.

"Well, yes, but we will still be granted many freedoms to do the job we need to," Giles replied although still unsure of this.

"I think the same will be said about the League," Clark noted realising he will be meeting with the President 'officially' as Superman very soon. The team had met just a week ago to discuss the matter of staying together in case the Earth is threatened again; Batman stating they may need to expand on their membership. The decision to stay together was mainly due to Chloe and her death, they had decided to stay together, this time, to honour her and help keep the world safe together. "There's always gonna be people who are scared of us, all we can do is that prove that they can trust us."

"Here here," Xander said chirpily then looking down solemnly as silence filled the air.

"So, what's gonna be happening with who's gonna be leader?" Kennedy asked bluntly. The other looked at her surprised, Willow looking at her aghast as well. "Sorry, I-I jus..."

"No," Giles sighed, "she's right; we have to do it now so we may stay united."

"I'll leave you guys to it," Clark said dully floating up into the air, "if you need help give me call," he said biding them goodbye and shooting into the air leaving them to deal with 'replacing' Buffy.

"Poor guy," Faith groaned sympathetically looking up at Clark disappearing in sky, "just buried his girl and he's gotta deal with the replacement."

"Perhaps we should have waited," Willow said gingerly.

"It can't wait," Giles said, "we need to decide this."

"I say X-man should be leader," Faith said nudging Xander.

"Me?" Xander cried surprised.

"You were Buffy's second in command," Willow shrugged, "who else can lead 500 girls?"

"All in favour of Xander being leader?" Giles said with a note of pride in his voice giving a small smile as he raised his hand for the stupid berk. They all put their hand up. "It's settled, Xander is Leader."

"Cool," Xander smiled weakly a thought suddenly appearing in his head, "one question..."

"No we are not going to call you Professor X," Giles sighed exasperated with one thought running through his head as he watched Xander smile broadly, the world is absolutely doomed.

The Daily Planet was abuzz, with people celebrating surviving the apocalypse, most of Metropolis was still rebuilding and with Superman it was going a lot quicker, the Daily Planet was still under repairs but had not been heavily damaged enough to stop the press. The news channels were still circling with news of peace time. Perry watched proudly in his office as a framed blown up enlargement of the next day's Front Page reading:

A NEW FRONTIER

The story had been written by Lois discussing the battle of Metropolis a picture of Superman hovering over Darksied with the Justice League and Slayers encircling him.

"That's a great photo Olsen, you'll go far in this gig," Perry grunted proudly patting Jimmy on the back as he and Jimmy looked at the article.

"It's a good thing Chloe got all those heroes together otherwise we wouldn't have got the pic or survived," Lois said as she stepped into the office glumly.

"Lois, I told you to take time off," Perry replied dully rubbing his neck guiltily as he looked at the article.

"No rest for the wicked, chief," Lois said dully sitting down.

"I'm sorry about Chloe, Miss Lane," Jimmy said sheepishly.

"Thank Jim," Lois said glumly. "You heard from Clark?"

"It's Buffy's funeral today," Jimmy said solemnly, "h-he's probably with the Slayers."

"Right," Lois nodded knowingly a twinge of sadness for her friend as she thought of what he had lost and what they both had lost. She remembered when he came to work after people in hiding; he was heartbroken when they told him the news. They all were, it only been a day since Chloe was named in the list of the dead.

"Mr White," Clark's voice appeared from the door causing them to turn abruptly surprised as Clark Kent stood at the door.

"Kent! What? How?" Perry growled in surprise wondering how he got back from Scotland so quick.

"One of B-the Slayer witches teleported me," Clark answered dodging saying Buffy's name, "Is it okay if I come back to work?"

"If that's what you want," Perry stuttered with uncertainty yet slightly selfishly wanting his best reporters back on the beat.

"Gotta keep busy," Clark said smiling slightly.

"Clark are you sure you want to jump back into this so soon, I mean, you have only just..." Lois stopped averting Clark's gaze.

"Buffy would keep going," Clark nodded, "so will I. I mean, I'm not gonna jumping into the big stories just little ones to get back into it."

"Okay Kent," Perry grunted snapping his braces, "h-how about you take to the streets and get the story of the people."

"Whatever you want Mr White," Clark nodded pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose turning and walking out of the room. Lois stood up walking after him.

"Hey, Smallville," she called turning him around to see his blue eyes filled with pain, "look, if you need to talk... I'm here if you need me."

"Thanks, Lois but I'm fine," Clark said meekly moving away shiftily.

"Look, I'm going for a drink after work," Lois said sympathetically, "We'll both raise a glass to Chloe and Buffy."

"Thanks," Clark said nodding, "I'll see you there."

"Yeah," Lois said turning and walking towards the cubicle.

"Lois," Clark called after a moment. "I'm sorry about Chloe."

"Yeah, I am too," Lois replied sitting down in her chair a silent muffled cry creeping into Clark's ear as he turned away. He turned placing a hand on her shoulder as he reached her cubicle.

"How about we get that drink?" Clark asked warmly as Lois turned tears in her eyes. "I hear Bibbo's got a special on club sandwiches."

"You're paying," Lois smiled both of them standing up, "Jimmy, you coming?"

"Do I get to drink?" Jimmy smirked.

"A diet soda," Clark smiled back placing a warm hand on Jimmy's shoulder all three of them walking away to the elevator.

Her eyes flickered open, her head hazy and dazed. She groaned in pain as the cold hard rain thundered down on her as she lay on the watered down ground. She pushed up stumbling against the hard dirty wall of the alleyway.

Despite the rain, the alleyway looked spotless, there was no grime on walls, no litter was on the ground. As she walked out into the equally clean street bathed in the night yet it being as empty as a ghost town, there was no drug dealers, anything. Nothing threatening.

What the hell was going on? She thought to herself as she walked down the empty street that remained deserted, she saw shadows in the buildings as the residents spotted her, fled within the darkness of their homes as though it protected them. What had happened to her? Where was she?

She recoiled as she stepped out into the street a blast clipping at her toes causing her to jump an ominous shadow looming over her as a group of people hovered over him. She looked up stunned at what she was seeing.

"You are out of curfew," a familiar voice boomed over her.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me," Buffy groaned in shock at the sight before.

"Now face the might of... the JUSTICE LORDS!" Superman boomed into the night as he stood adorned in a black and white counterpart of his own costume.

Okay, Buffy thought, this is bad.

AUTHOR NOTE:

Okay so that's the end of Twilight Hour and I hope you're all excited about lies ahead for Buffy and Clark. Before I get back to the next story I'll be doing a couple of little stories tieing into this story which will be:

Willow's Odyssey: A prequel to this story set after Buffy Season 7, showing Willow's journey of recovery and discovery as she and Kennedy both travel around the world meeting some of DC's many character some of which have been shown and alluded to in this story i.e. Dr Fate, Zatanna, Diana and Themyscira and many more.

And:

The Slaying Joke: carrying on from this story but not being a sequel to it, we see the Slayers being Targeted by the Joker as he tries to show that anyone can go mad after "one bad day"

After those two stories I will be back with the Sequel to Twilight Hours and Probably the conclusion to the Buffy/Clark Saga (I've said that before):

SMALLVILLE: CRISIS IN THE MULTIVERSE