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(Taken from the Collected Journals of Cordelia Chase-Harris)
I awoke in the library as if from a deep sleep. I knew things had changed, for the first thing I noticed was how warm it was. The sun was glistening through the window and for the first time in years I felt at peace.
I remember feeling a gentle hand on my shoulder and looking into the eyes of Xander, an aged beauty that could mean only one of two things: I was either dead or the timeline had been changed. I opted for change. I learned of the events that had transpired after my leave from 1999.
As Xander filled me in, Willow and Oz came to my side and I hugged them like I had not seen them in years. Even now, the feeling of joy is hard to express, except for me to say that I cannot remember being so happy. I heard a voice from the office and I saw Spike there, smiling and with a book, always with a book. I was saddened to hear that Giles had died, but I felt a great love for him when I learned how valiantly he had sacrificed himself. He had given his life without hesitation leading one of the last great battles of our war. Now that was the Giles I knew. And so I learned that Xander had been passed the lessons of the Watcher and even now, I can see a more mature stare from those beautiful brown eyes. Willow and Amy were perfecting a cure for all vampires and I know someday they will solve the riddle and we will win once and for all. The war still rages but it is nothing like the world had been. we have a chance. We have hope.
What broke my heart and crushed me for the longest time was learning that Buffy had died. The Master rose, I guess destiny can only be averted to a point. That led to a final confrontation, the two destroying one another. I remember shedding tears, but something bore me up, something Buffy had told me years ago. She said, "I love life and I love my friends, and if I have to go defending them, I'll have died happy." I know Buffy is revered in Heaven and waiting for Angel on some beautiful plane of existence. But she will never be forgotten and I will honor her memory to the day I die. That was why I named my first daughter Buffy, for all that she was: honest, courageous, and loving.
Angel left to Los Angeles where his Resistance forces are decimating the Vampire armies. He comes often to talk of Buffy, and to visit her grave, and to see Xander (two strange brothers in a strange world.)
Willow became our Slayer and with the knowledge handed down to her by Buffy, we take more and more of our world back everyday. I see Joyce Summers as much as I can, and my little Buffy has already began to call her grandma.
I didn't come home to paradise; there are still crises and suffering and death, but it's a very different world, a different life, from the one I left behind.
Xander once told me that he thought that fate had come to an end, that a certain cycle of downfall and redemption and renewal had played out its finish, leaving us to make our own destiny from now on. I like the sound of that.
There's just one thing I have to add: Thank you, Buffy, thank you so much for giving me tomorrow, today.