Takes place before the "wedding" of Xander and Anya, but after "Wrecked"

Archive? Just tell me where it's going.
 
 

Prologue
 

It was early morning in Sunnydale and it was--what else? --sunny. The birds were chirping, the sky a cool blue with scattered clouds spreading across the horizon and a gentle breeze blew through the air. It was breathtakingly beautiful and serene. All of this was interrupted by the earsplitting guitar riffs and heavy bass that echoed from the headphones of the paperboy.

He turned down the next street, head pumping with the each drumbeat of the song. He reached into his sack and, with expert aim, tossed a folded up paper onto the porch of one of the houses. As the bike glided down the pavement he threw another rolled up newspaper which landed neatly on the steps of 1630 Revello Drive. All while he did this he never even took a moment to glance at the headline of the front page that blazed across the top of the paper in bold letters. After all, why would anyone want to read anything as boring as the newspaper when you could listen to the newest hit by The Gars: Rip Out Your Throat?

He pumped his legs harder and sucked in more oxygen as he cruised down another street, blissfully ignorant of what was lurking in the town at that very moment.

* * *

Buffy peeked through blurry eyelashes and opened her eyes slightly to see the sunlight streaming through her curtains. She mumbled an incoherent phrase, scrunched her eyes shut once more, and pulled the thick comforter back over her face. A pause. She then threw the comforter back and looked over at the digital clock at its place on her nightstand. The red digits cheerfully read the time: 7:45.

"Shit!" She exclaimed, and jumped out of bed. Or rather, attempted to jump out of bed. Somewhere along the way her sheets had decided to hold her hostage and she went tumbling to the floor, landing in a very ungraceful thump on the carpet.

"Shit." This time successfully unwinding the evil sheets from her legs, she threw open the door to her bedroom and scrambled down the hall, past the room where Willow was sleeping serenely until her late classes that morning, and on to the next door on the left which was carefully adorned with various pictures of the latest teenage heartthrobs. Inside, her little sister was still peacefully sleeping in her bed.

Buffy strode over and roughly shook her awake. "Dawn! Dawn, get up, you're late!"

Dawn, being a teenager, thought it was ridiculous that she was expected to get up before she had a acquired a full 10 hours of sleep. If she was already late, what was one more hour? She rolled over, ignoring her sister's pleas, and began to settle back into the dream she had been having involving the cute boy in her science class and a nifty musical number. However, it was once again rudely interrupted when her sheets were swiftly pulled off and her curtains thrown open, letting in a full stream of harsh sunlight.

"Get up. Be down for breakfast in ten minutes!" called Buffy sternly as she rushed out of the room.

Dawn groaned and fell back against her pillows. Another Monday morning in the Summers' household.

* * *

Twenty minutes and two pieces of toast later, Dawn ran out the door to school, backpack thumping as she struggled to catch the bus. Buffy stepped out the door after getting ready in a record-breaking 5 minutes, and locked it after her as she used every shortcut she knew to get to her early-morning shift at the Doublemeat Palace on time. Neither of them noticed the newspaper they stepped over in their rush. Neither noticed the bold words reading: