Title: Travelling Slayer

Author: badly-knitted

Characters: Buffy

Rating: G

Spoilers: Innocence, Passion, Becoming, Anne, The Wish.

Summary: Buffy can't face going back to Sunnydale. An AU version of events following the end of Season 2.

Word Count: 325

Written For: mirrored_illusions's prompt 'BtVS, Buffy, Buffy became a Travelling Slayer after the events of "Anne", rather than return to Sunnydale,' at fic_promptly

Disclaimer: I don't own BTVS, or the characters. They belong to Joss Whedon.

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Buffy knows she can't go back; Sunnydale holds too many memories, and besides, she's too ashamed. It's her fault Angel lost his soul and turned evil again, her fault Jenny died, her fault that so many bad things happened.

Angel. She'll never forget the look of confusion on his face as she drove the sword through him and consigned him to Hell. She could have done it without the slightest remorse if he'd still been Angelus, but somehow he'd regained his soul at the last moment and she'd had no choice but to kill him anyway. Sometimes being a Slayer sucked beyond anything.

She can't change what she is though, can never escape her destiny, and in a way that's okay. It means she has a way to make amends for all the pain she's caused. Just because Sunnydale is a Hellmouth doesn't mean it's the only place vampires and demons can be found, and anyway, there's another Hellmouth in Cleveland. Maybe she'll head up there for a little while. It's probably best not to stay anywhere for long though. Keep on the move, that way no one will be able to find her.

Throwing her bag, filled with her meagre possessions, over her shoulder, she boards a bus heading north. At one time, she'd thought living in L.A. again would be a dream come true, but that had been before she saw what all the glitz and glamour was hiding. Now she can't wait to get away.

Settling into a window seat, she stares out at the darkness; this is just the first step on her new path. Buffy Summers is gone, and now she's not even Anne. She has no identity but her profession; everything she ever was has been cast aside, leaving only this, a girl who roams the world battling demons and the forces of evil. A travelling slayer.

She just wishes she could leave her broken heart behind as well.

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The End