Damn...

At long last a RESET that doesn't bring all things perfect à la "Star Trek: Voyager"'s "Year of Hell"! This is realistic - in a Buffyverse way - and the only real winners are Xander and Faith. The Big Bad and the Hero.

OK, that ending is a shock, but Willow is a dummy, thinking that she can reset time without any consequences. In fact, you have opened there a veritable Pandora Box! This is a reboot à la "Star Trek" (again). Who knows if some other subtle things have not changed and will make huge differences in the future?

Well, you do, of course. :) Wonderful story!

Well actually I don't!

I've started what is likely to be the last Fita story, it involves the SAS, Serbian Insurgents, three witches, a master vampire and possibly some Werewolves. Now I could go with the witches turning everything back to how it should have been or something similar. I could have Faith retiring, I really don't know.

In fact, if you have any ideas how to do an open ended ending for this series I'd like to hear them!

Cheers,
D.

PS: if you wanna contact me, go to my profile and contact me through the TTH system.

Well. Ah. That was a suddenly jarring crash of a twist second ending. It quite suddenly is very terrible to be anyone but a bitter backstabbing Xander or, to some extent, Faith. And poor Willow especially, relapsing again and falling to despair, as suddenly she and everyone else is suddenly under the scrutiny of a US government that suddenly knows enough about magic that it can force someone to log their spells and rate the power levels of said spells. Sigh...
I really don't know what to think, I really don't.

Don't mess with things that you don't understand maybe...or that Chinese saying (I think it is), Careful what you wish for you might get it!

Willow always had this thing about jumping in where witches fear to tread.

Also I wanted to get back to the idea of writing military adventure stories without having to explain why Faith wasn't working as a slayer...or something like that.

It all seemed like a good idea at the time.

Cheers,
D.

Awesome ending. I thought it wrapped things up pretty nicely. Congratulations on completing another great installment. Can't wait to see your next project.

Side note: Ignore those haters and don't let them tell you what to wright. Unless they are saying to get back to Dies the Fire.

Thank-you.

I wouldn't call them 'haters' everyone is entitled to their opinion however misguided I might think they are ;)

Cheers,
D.

very fine read, thank you.

Thank-you,
D.

My problem with the ending is that the law doesn't work that way. Any crimes that Buffy did that were still actionable this much later would have a much higher sentence; any crimes with a sentence so low would not be actionable this much later.

Additionally, it is not that easy to pass a law as overarching as you are suggesting. If nothing else, all it takes is one 'mini-Slayer' and her family disagreeing, and getting the ACLU involved, and the masquerade is gone.

Oh, and in regards to Dana/Faith being a super-soldier, well, if Walsh tried out this experimental process and it succeeded as well as Faith did, why would they stop and move on to demon/android hybrids, unless Faith was the only success out of a pool of failures? And the reason she succeeded? Because she became infused with the Slayer spirit!

Otherwise, there would be another Slayer walking around during that time period.

I had it on good authority that US law does work this way and could be made to work this way. The short sentence was due to Buffy having saved the world (mitigating circumstances I think its called) on more than one occasion.

Over here you are supposed to have a TV licence before you can watch TV as it is broadcast. The thing is the only way the government has of Knowing you've got a TV is if you tell them. Many years ago the USAF told its female pilots that they couldn't fly if they were having their periods. Result, a bunch of women who never had periods! The point is if they never tell the government doesn't know.

Also as this is set a few weeks/months after the 'law' has been passed the unintended consequences won't have worked themselves through the system.

Due to contact with the Mayor, Faith's loyalties started to slip. Also Walsh was one test tube short of a science set so who knows what she was thinking?

Cheers,
D.

It occurs to me that the best way to have handled the Scoobies would have been to have moved Faith to another reality all together and have forgotten them.

not something that occurred to me at the time.

Cheers,
D.

very good chapter. great ending to the chapter. thanks for the fine read.

Thank-you.

You seem to be in a minority here so your review is more than usually welcome.

Cheers,
D.

That was way cool, I can't decide whether I'm happy or sad over that ending. The evil Amy had me giggling, bit shocked over the evil Xander, not many of those around. I was almost expecting Willow to end the world by constantly changing history, an infinite cycle of do overs.

I'd like to thank you for your amazing stories, you're a brilliant writer.

Thank-you for saying so, but even I admit to wobbling a bit on this one.

AS I've mentioned previously I wanted to draw a line under Faith's 'past'...this seemed like the best way of doing it.

The idea for everything getting screwed up comes from a Farscape episode where every time they tried to change the past for the better it just made things worse!

Cheers,
D.

I really, really hate this ending!!!! And all because of those Xander fanatics!

EDIT: But that does not change the fact that the whole reset part of the story is the weakest part of the whole series. It seems that you have forgotten, that Willow learned the lesson about magic in the summer between season 6 and 7 and thus would never try to do such a selfish thing rewrite history. Please, change this terrible ending.

No, I never listen to fanatics. I just thought this ending was more evil than what I'd got planned originally.

Cheers,
D.

I said it back when I reviewed Chapter 3:

Review Date [10 Feb 13] • Rating [9/10]
Review by starsteel
Willow's idea will end badly, very very very badly.
Comments from author:
Maybe not 'very, very very badly'. Perhaps just 'very badly'!

Cheers,
D.

----

I think this ended very, very very badly, for everyone except Xander, that is.

Thanks,
D.

The ending to this one left me so I actually had to step away from the keyboard for a bit. I frankly don't know what to say. You already knew what I was rooting for and this was, essentially, the exact opposite, so there's that.

I do like Faith as Dana, as I tend to enjoy that spin. I think Faith as SuperSoldier actually does make some sense, though others have critiqued the suggested outcomes. On the other hand, I also think you probably could have kept her as the Slayer and still have changed the world around so, that's another 2 cents in the wishing fountain.

I really, really personally would have rather you'd gone with the happy ending; as I suspect there would have been loads of redemption going on for a lot of people, Xander included. Especially with the reveal that he was, in fact, being unduly influenced.

That said, thank you for sharing the story. I may not be as enthusiastic as I usually am about this remarkable run of stories, but I am so very glad I read them.

Thank-you.

Unfortunately the original ending didn't really solve anything, it just put it off. With this story I was really hoping to draw a line under Faith's past so I could get back to the original idea for the stories...I mean everyone suffers from mission creep.

This way I explain Faith's past in such a way that she's not charged with murder a long with a lot of other people.

Anyway, in a month or two I'll be posting the next Fita story which I hope you'll find more to your liking.

Cheers,
D.

WTF!!! When Xander shows up at the FBI spouting about vampires and slayers, they will think him Loony Tunes and immediately obtain a judge order sending him to a psychiatric hospital.
And what's with the Mutant Registration Act - that caused a civil war in X-Men. It will be even worse here - US government using slayers for their assassination sections will cause huge upheavals in the supernatural world - possibly even direct intervention from the PTB.
The supernatural evil heavyweights will be laughing.

Dave - take a rest to recover from this - it seems you have been possessed by the Xander character.:-). Then come back and fix this story - or mark it as a super-AU experiment.

Oh, I almost forgot - it is mentioned that the authorities know that Buffy saved the world - that's not going to earn her a sentence reduction - it is going to result in executive orders completely classifying and covering up everything -- the results will include Riley Finn remaining a Colonel (even getting a promotion).

Note Giles concerns about Government and slayers.

As I say I'm resting the series for a while, but we will be back....perhaps Faith will wake up and find it was all a dream!?

Cheers,
D.

I have to say that I'm really quite disappointed in this story, since I had much greater expectations for it, given the other stories in the series.

The hand-waving explanation of Xander's betrayal of his friends seems almost like an afterthought and completely contradicts his established character, even if taken solely from the last two extraordinarily bad canon seasons. The fact that you have him acting like an evil caricature of Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel, does nothing to improve the story in any way. All you neglected to add was the "Bwah-ha-ha!" laugh.

And exactly what sort of documentation did Xander save and take with him which would make any government official or military officer give him any credibility regarding his claims? Any so-called evidence would also have to survive detailed inspection and numerous challenges that any semi-competent defense attorneys would raise regarding substantiating proof of his claims after six years had elapsed, as well as the fact that the town where the alleged crimes had occurred had disappeared in what certainly looked to be a natural disaster of epic proportions, thereby eliminating any possibility of verification of said claims.

Buffy going to prison for a year, and Riley and his boss being forced to retire would seem to indicate that Xander provided ironclad proof of some sort, but I can't really think of what, exactly, he'd be able to offer the government other than so-called eyewitness testimony, and that's not anything that's going to be simply accepted and acted upon in such a manner without additional proof.

Further, your declaration that Willow would submit meekly to any government group basically contradicts Willow's established character of wanting to be in control at all times, whenever possible, and ignores the fact that she's capable of teleporting herself out of any cell she might be locked in, that she coudl use magic to make herself invisible to escape, that she's more than capable (and has an established canon record) of modifying memories to suit her own convenience. Getting arrested by the federal government is certainly something she'd at least find inconvenient, so I can't accept her simply remaining in custody and not doing anything.

Also, I have to wonder what sort of witch/warlock/sorcerer or mystical artifact it is that the US Army/government employs/possesses that would make Willow accede to their demands that she only use minor spells, which she would record in a 'diary' they required her to keep. He/she/it would have to be a *very* big mystical stick, and one capable of preemptively smacking her down, if she decided to not comply with her sentence.

Also, why wouldn't Willow simply do the 'reality reset' spell again, and this time being more specific regarding the sort of results she wanted to end up with? The Willow you showed us in the early parts of this story, and earlier stories, was certainly someone wouldn't hesitate to do exactly that sort of thing.

Further, Maggie being responsible for Faith's superhuman abilities and supposedly showing up in Sunnydale as the next Slayer completely ignores the fact that the Watchers Council would be showing up the day after her appearance, wanting to determine the circumstances surrounding her Calling. They were apparently quite capable of locating whichever unfortunate girl was Called after the current Slayer's death, since Faith's canon Watcher was able to locate her easily enough after Kendra's death, and any inconsistencies or contradictions to what they knew about Kendra's death would be noted immediately. There are several other problems with suggesting that Faith was Maggie's creation, as has been pointed out by other reviewers, so I'll let them pass. Having Faith end up as Dana Taker is also rather iffy, but I'll just ignore that since it's only a minor problem.

All in all, I ended up with the impression that you grew tired of writing this story and simply jotted down the first thoughts that came into your mind, in order to complete this particular story, since things seemed to simply appear as needed to further the storyline, and I'm disappointed because the other stories have been quite enjoyable.

Some of what you point out is quite true, other points I've answered in other replies.

I've come to the conclusion that its time to get back to basics with this series. From the next story, 'You're a great deal of trouble, Miss Lehane' I'm concentrating on Faith's actions and only have one other Sunnydale character making occasional appearances where her skill set is required. Of course I'll have to address the fall-out from this story, but after that its going to be Faith kicking ass and taking names.

Cheers,
D.

Wow, you went for the unhappy ending. Ouch. I have the feeling I should recognize the situation Xander ended up in, but it didn't ring a bell. So he lived happily ever after?.... My bet is Willow doesn't suicide, she tends to externalize her rage/grief. She'll either find and shoot Xander or 'do a spell' --that's how she always tries to fix problems.
** How in the world did the gov. get convictions on all that stuff, on Xander's unsupported word? Just wondering.

Sorry I missed replying to your review!

To answer your last question; as has recently happened in the UK one person speaking out can open the flood gates!

At least that's my explanation and I'm sticking to it!

Cheers,
D.

Currently, Willow is working with DC Comics. She is involved with plans to revamp and relaunch the entire line of comics.

In the end when it comes to magic, Willow is a greenhorn.

It would be ironic if Amy goes to work for the government in the new continuity.

After hearing Xander's testimony regarding the Council's treatment of Slayers, the government officials were left with one question in their minds - 'Would I trust these idiots with my little girl?' The answer - 'No, not now, not ever.'

For future stories, I think it would be best if you concentrated on Faith, and forget the Scoobies all together.

What happened to the book? Shortly after Xander left, lightning struck the house and burned it to the ground, destroying the book in the process.

Actually you seem to be able to read my mind!

In future I think I will concentrate on Faith as that was what the original idea was. In the original one-shot story 'it makes a fella proud to be a soldier' I even wrote the Scoobies out only to bring them back later.

I've been thinking about where I'm going with this a lot in the last few days, and I think I know what to do with it.

Cheers,
D.