My story takes place a year after the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended and a month after Angel the Series ended so...everything that happened in the series is what happened in my story because my story picks up after the series....
Mainstays of the show and of my story:
Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, Dawn
Important players in my story:
Tara, Angel
Sort of important players in the series but not really for my story:
Faith, Kennedy
Buffy is the Slayer...one girl in all the world, one dies, the next is called. She is trained by a Watcher...who works for the Watchers' Council and generally has an inordinate amount of knowledge about demons and majick and whatnot --- Buffy died, briefly, at the end of season 1, so Kendra was called --- Buffy had drowned and apparently the majicks surrounding the slayer line hadn't accounted for CPR...so Kendra was called despite Buffy being brought back from the dead...Kendra died at the end of Season 2, so Faith was called...Faith had issues, turned on Buffy, Buffy put her in a coma then Faith went to jail, she broke out to help save the world and is now Buffy's friend and ally...Buffy fell in love with Angel, a vampire cursed by some gypsies so he now has a soul...there's a caveat on the soul...One moment of true happiness, and the soul goes away and he becomes a monster again...because, as a rule, vampires are monsters...so he and Buffy were forced to separate because they discovered this caveat the first time they made love -- and apparently it's only with Buffy that he achieves the true moment of happiness because he's had sex since Buffy without going all monstery....in the series, Buffy and crew defeated The First Evil and are scattered all over the world...Angel is presumed dead at the end of his series (depending on who you talk to...you're talking to me and for purposes of the story, he died in the world Willow inhabits)... Buffy is still the Slayer but she's no longer the only one...a mystical scythe was found and using Willow's power (which is beyond formidable) they "activated" any "potential" slayer...so now there are thousands of them all over the world...The Watchers' Council was blown up by an agent of The First Evil so Buffy and 'the Scooby Gang" (as they refer to themselves) are rebuilding the council and the structure with which Slayers are trained. Angel is dead, as far as Buffy knows (when a vampire dies, it turns to dust...no body)...and has been for a month...Angel is alive in an alternate reality created by an event detailed below...Dawn is Buffy's sister who showed up in Season 5 much to the befuddlement of fans - since she wasn't there in S1-4...long story short, Dawn was "created" from a mystical ball of green energy (also known as "the key") by some monks who were trying to hide the key from a hellgod. That's all you need to know for Willow's Promise.
Willow is Buffy's best friend...she had a HUGE thing for Xander for a long time until she met and started dating Oz...she dated Oz for two and half years, they broke up when he realized he couldn't control the werewolf part of him and he took off to find a cure...by the time he came back, Willow had fallen in love with Tara...they're both "witches" supposedly in the Wiccan fashion but they're more majick than wicca...I fell in love with this couple and Willow's Promise was based on a moment that happened in the series when Tara was 'mind-sucked' by a hellgod, leaving her a babbling shell of herself...using majicks, Willow was able to reverse this and there's a moment on screen when Tara says "I got so lost" and Willow responds with "I found you...I will always find you"...Willow lost control of her majick use and became addicted and began abusing her power...she erased some of Tara's memories...Tara found out, Willow promised to go a week without majick, she didn't they broke up (very heartbreaking)...Willow spiraled out of control until she hit bottom then detoxed from majick ... wasn't going to use it ever again ... she and Tara eventually reconciled ...and then Tara was killed by a stray bullet shot by a guy trying to kill Buffy...Willow tried to resurrect Tara (Buffy had died in season 5 and Willow had brought her back...but that was a mystical death and Tara's was natural) and when she couldn't...she gave into the majick and went all dark and scary Willow with a thirst for vengeance...she hunted down and killed the man who killed Tara and was about to destroy the world (like I said...really powerful) when Xander reached her. Giles then took her to England where she studied with a powerful coven and learned about her majick (which had become part of her) and the origins of all majick...she came back to help Buffy battle The First Evil who was killing off all potentials in a plan to pretty much take over the world --- so all the potentials that could be identified and found before they were killed by agents of The First, were sent to Sunnydale to train with Buffy...Kennedy (ack phooey) was one of those...she saw Willow and began to pursue her...so she became Willow's girlfriend...blick...First Evil squashed...my story picks up a year later...and you read the first chapter...Willow knows it's over with Kennedy, and is dreaming about Tara...
Tara ---Willow's, for lack of a better word, soulmate...in my opinion anyway --- shy and quiet and apparently abused by her family...she met Willow and fell in love...but Willow was getting over Oz at the time...Tara and Willow eventually get together...they split up and reconcile (see above)... and Tara (in the series) is killed by the stray bullet...in my story...I stay true to the series but also used some of the mythology of the series in creating an "alternate timeline" in which Willow was the one killed by the bullet...the First Evil won the battle killing everyone but Tara...Angel, who was in LA at the time of the big battle...came to Sunnydale to find any survivors, found Tara and the two of them have been surviving as best they can...Tara is meditating and calling on several goddesses ...and somehow, across the realities...Willow's getting the signal
Xander --- is Buffy and Willow's other best friend...he's kind of goofy but he's a true champion...no special skills or powers or anything...but loyal and pretty fearless --- he's a carpenter by trade and a decent guy who was messed up by his family and left his fiancee Anya at the altar...something he still has guilt feelings over and can't really fully resolve because Anya was killed in the final battle with the First in both realities...Xander has fallen in love with Dawn, Buffy's younger sister...and is kicking himself about it...even though Dawn is the one pursuing him...This is purely my own fiction...there were a few moments in the show that you could point to and say...oh sure...they could so be a couple...but the series pretty much showed them in a brother/sister fashion...so their relationship as a romantic relationship is in my fiction, not on the show.
Giles is Buffy's watcher...the guy that trains her and helps her with research ...he's very smart...and made the cardinal sin (in the eyes of the Council) by caring too much for Buffy...he's become a kind of surrogate father to the whole group (Willow & Xander's parents were seen only once or twice and rarely mentioned...they were pretty much absent...Buffy & Dawn's parents were divorced, dad ignored them and mom died in season 5)...he has no family that we were ever told about in the series and had two romantic relationships in the 7 year run --- Jenny Calendar, who was a teacher at the high school where he was the librarian...she was brutally murdered by Angelus (Angel without his soul)...and Olivia...who we only saw twice ...it seemed they had a good relationship but the last time we saw her, she was freaked out by some monsters--- she hadn't believed in the supernatural up to that point.
I think that's all you need to know to get the gist of the series and the story without me giving too much of the story away...