“I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there’s evil and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish a whole lot of the time that I hadn’t been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn’t been, either.” She began, forcing herself to meet the steely gaze of the potentials and doing so strongly.

“But this isn’t about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes. Not when its army is ready. Now!”

A few of the newer girls inhaled sharply as if what they were hearing was new information when, in fact, Giles had forewarned most of them that this is exactly what Buffy could be calling them together for.

“This morning I’m opening the Seal. I’m going down into the Hellmouth and I’m finishing this once and for all. Right now you’re asking yourselves what makes this different. What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one? It’s true; none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here’s the part where you make a choice.”

One by one, the potentials looked around the room, each one wondering who would be the first to break ranks and leave the group. The offer that Buffy was putting before them seemed too good to be true. In all their time there, she had told them they the time would come when they’d would have to fight, she had never even hinted at giving them the option to walk away and now, on the day that she seemed insistent on going to face the First, she was telling them they didn’t all have to go.

“We’re all going!!” Kennedy stated firmly, as if someone had made her spokesperson for the entire group.

She looked around the others, almost daring someone to question her.

“Kennedy,” Giles said firmly, “It’s not your decision. If anyone wants to back out, now is the time to do it.” He finished, regarding the entire group with a warm, fatherly smile.

Silence hung over the room and Buffy took this as her cue to continue her speech.

“What if you could have that power… now? In every generation one