Thank you so much! I'm glad the parallels and repetitions work for you...I was afraid they'd be confusing!

And so glad also that you found it believable. I started out with the first ending, because I wanted to write a happy NFA where Buffy comes and everything is hunky dorey. But I thought that might be...too wish-fulfillment and schmoopy for me to stomach, so I tried to make each ending darker than the last. Glad it worked for you, and again, thanks so much for letting me know!