And then all the potentials were hunted down one by one and killed, and the world ended.

Brilliant fic, typically vapid Buffy and her whining about her right to rule despite being bloody awful at it. A little too much talking and not much doing, but other than that, great fic.

Buffy wasn't exactly Rommel, more Custer.

Interesting how people forgot one little aspect of everything. With Sunnydale largely empty there is no way the Seal can be opened. You need a hero's blood to open the Seal. Just how are the Bringer gonna find one in Sunnydale before the area is flooded with enough troops to take them out. The Turok Han will never enter the picture again and the First is pretty screwed.

Not to mention the Talisman could be used by Faith, Buffy, Willow, Angel, Anya, Dawn, Gunn, Lorne or even Xander as each is a Champion and souled. Stronger than human can be interpreted many ways, anything from physical strength to emotional strength. Not to mention the humans and Lorne could survive the channeling of the sun better than Spike or Angel could.

The Potentials did their best with the information they had. After all who continues to follow a Leader who is proving herself to be a bigger threat to you than the enemy?

Well you got one thing right, Buffy is sure acting crazy here! As for the rest of them, they don't really get enough screen time to know for sure but I did find it a bit strange that Faith said it would have been good idea to put her in charge when she wasn't very happy about it when it happened in canon. I can't see this story turning out well now that Spike is dust. There are not enough soldiers on Earth to face a horde of Turok-han like the one beneath the seal. Maybe if they can get hold of the President and get a nuclear weapons release most of the supervamps could be killed, but the scoobies wouldn't be around to see it. Or maybe Angel could wear the fancy necklace. Worth a try I guess.
I really wanted to see what the potentials came up with about Spike though. I can think of a couple of reasons not to trust him but he was one of the heavy hitters on their side and I can't come up with a reason why they would dust him if they were leaving the city. It just seems pointless.

Good story - and excellent for the way it stops Buffy in her tracks. However, in the case of an apocalypse, there's ultimately nowhere to run to. Yes, the Scoobies should have yelled for help - but we never see *in canon* anyone they can reasonably call for help from except Riley's group, and Angel's group (though I believe that at the time, Angel's group was suspect due to taking over Wolfram & Hart).

The potentials who have run away to the Marine Base are going to find themselves buried in all kinds of fun - with too many people fighting to protect their bureaucratic piece of the pie to give them any time to actually get the Marines pre-warned about what might be coming. Any of them over the age of consent are going to be closely questioned about kidnapping - the ones under are going to get grilled about their parents, and any surviving relatives, and all-in-all, it's going to turn into a Charlie Foxtrot of the highest order.

So, running away is not really a good answer - it's a panicked one.

to bad for them supernatural evil is not rational

There seems to be so much left unanswered...Did the Potentials make it out safely? Will the others be able to make Buffy see reason? Who all will answer the call for help? I hope there will be a sequel to this story. I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad to finally know who Monsieur M is!

Excellent ending. Wraps up the idea nively.

I do like how the Scoobies and Dawn have had a few more hours to process everything. Along with reading the letter, I can see where Dawn would be over the wailing part of her grief and could be rational.

Never really went along with 'rational army...' thing, but I can see how it works in this case.

Pity this story has come to an end.

D.

Sad huh. Dawn is feeling good enough to make rational arguments without even a little alone time to process Spikes death and think it through. I am fond enough of Dawns character that I can forgive her this but I wish she wasn't such a robot about it.

A great new take on the reactions to General Buffy.

Good as usual. Here's something that bothered me, you know I always wondered about them opening the seal of Zanzibar or whatever it's called, Xander works as a building site foreman with access to equipment, why not fill the basement room with quick drying cement mixed with blessed salt to give them time so they can get help, like Riley with either reinforcements or a big bomb. If they needed to open it why did they do something silly like post guards to stop the vamps getting out when it was broad daylight outside? even better why didn't they dig up the seal to keep it exposed to the Sun and open it in the early morning? silly scriptwriters.

I sort of like this story.

After seven years on the Hellmouth and dying a couple or three times poor old Buffy wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders.

They call it 'combat fatigue'.

I'm looking forward to the next thing the potentials suggest.

D.

With this bunch of "geniuses" in charge, the First is assured of victory. The only person of importance in its canonic defeat was Spike, with the others just acting as delaying cannon-fodder.
The First has no reason to make an appearance to taunt them, when they are doing its job for it of betraying the only two people who posed a threat to it.
Monsieur M is another one of the First's acolytes, so definitely they should follow his advice.;-)

I'm not sure how I feel about this one.
It is well written, and I do agree that Buffy needed to be reined in by this point, but the glee that the group seems to have doing it might be what throws me.
Then again, that kind of Author's Call is why what we're here for.
My question is, am I being dense not understanding who "M" is or is it a punch line we haven't gotten to yet?