The world has ended. The world has more than ended -- it's ended and then it's started again, and that pretty much makes this normal, because didn't the world start for the second or third time a couple of thousand years ago?

That makes this a cycle, that means it's going to happen again, that means that no matter what, no matter what anyone does, in another few thousand years the world will have to start again, which means it will have to end again, and that means that another group of people who don't quite know the whole story will fight against staying within this cycle, this -- this pattern.

The idea that they were simply playing out their roles in history wasn't unknown; it had always lingered in the back of her mind. She'd always known it, to some extent, that one day her destiny was supposed to catch up with her. She was supposed to die when she was eighteen -- but she didn't, and everything after that was found time. It took her too long to realize, though, that what she could do with that time was anyone's guess.

She was supposed to die -- that was part of the cycle. She didn't, so now she's behind schedule. The universe is off balance. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes everything is circumvented. Sometimes people die when they're supposed to live, and sometimes they live when they are supposed to die. Even destiny has a destiny -- and that is to sometimes be thwarted. So maybe she wasn't supposed to die after all; for all Their wisdom, The Powers never thought of that, did they? Maybe her death was right on schedule, and maybe that was the problem -- she thought she was living on found time, but she was just doing exactly what the universe had predicted.

She was getting cynical in her death.

But that isn't the part that matters. What matters is that nothing matters. Everyone dies and everyone lives and everyone has a role to play, and what they are really doing is what they are supposed to be doing. Buffy's insecurities were all supposed to happen, Faith and Robin were predestined -- but wouldn't have been if anything in Faith's early life had been different. Faith probably wouldn't appreciate knowing that Robin saw his mother in her and that was part of the attraction -- Robin, for all his self-awareness, probably wouldn't appreciate that either. Riley was supposed to leave. Giles was supposed to leave and stay away, but Buffy was supposed to stay dead the second time.

Willow would probably be amused to know how much her powers mucked up The Powers' plans. Willow would probably spit on them and tell them to go to the same Hell Buffy sent Angel to. Angel wasn't supposed to come back from that. Angel wasn't supposed to start saving people in L.A., and he wasn't supposed to take over Wolfram and Hart, and they wonder why L.A. is so filled with evil? Something has to balance it all out.

And even sometimes balance doesn't happen the way it's supposed to, because the world wasn't supposed to come back from this last ending. It was supposed to stay ended -- and it didn't. Maybe that's part of a plan too -- Tara has no idea.

But she has nothing but time now, nothing but space, nothing but endless days to spend watching the dimensions play out, each one a different way destiny could have worked, and to contemplate whether destiny can be changed and yet remain the same.