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“Is something wrong?” was Angel’s urgent greeting and Buffy frowned into the phone.
“Huh? No. Why would it be?”
“You’re at the Magic Box and not at work.”
Buffy fidgeted. “Something came up.”
“Something bad?” Angel asked, immediately concerned.
“No…”
“Well?” Angel asked after a moment of silence.
Buffy sighed. “I can’t do this over the phone. Can you come here now?”
“There’s no one else in the office. Buffy if something’s wrong…”
The Slayer closed her eyes, hating the worry in his voice. “I need to talk to you, but it has to be in person.”
“Buffy you’re starting to scare me.
“No it’s… I’ll come you the office.”
“Ok. I guess I can wait for…”
“What did you call about?” she interrupted, forcing him onto another subject.
“What?”
“You rang me remember?”
“Oh. Is Paris ok?”
“For what?” Buffy asked genuinely confused.
“The honeymoon. You told me to pick somewhere.”
“Right. Sorry. I forgot.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“Is it ok?”
Buffy smiled faintly. “Of course. It’s perfect.”
“Ok. We can talk some more when you get here. When will you get here?”
“I’ll be about a half an hour.”
“I’ll see you then.” Angel paused. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
****
“How…?” Spike began and realised he didn’t know what else to say. How do ask someone why they were responsible for a death? Looking at Willow as she sat quietly on the other side of the table, he couldn’t imagine her causing any kind of pain to anyone
Willow seemed to know what he was thinking and smiled a little. “The year you left a lot of things happened that left me… well, left me less than stable.”
“Willow,” Giles warned, but she shook her head and laid a hand over his.
“It’s ok Giles,” she said gently and turned back to Spike. “I did some stupid things and I made some bad decisions.” She hung her head. “Met some bad people. And I became obsessed by it. Ignored my friends. Hurt them sometimes. Hurt Dawn and Ta…” her voice broke and she squeezed Giles’ hand tightly.
Spike looked away while Willow composed herself, thoughts racing through his mind. Did any of this have any bearing on why he had left? Had Willow’s behaviour had any affect on him? He quickly turned his attention back to the redhead as she started to speak.
“When I realised how bad it had gotten and that I was endangering everyone I did everything I could to stop. Buffy and Xander helped me through everything and things started to go right again. Tara and I got back together. Xander and Anya got married things seemed perfect.”
She stopped again and when it seemed as though she wouldn’t continue Spike prompted “But?”
The redhead raised her eyes to his and he could have sworn they flashed black for a moment.
“But nothing ever stays perfect. And for all the happy you get, a karmic amount of bad is waiting just around the corner to jump out at you.”
****
May 2002
Willow looked down at her lover lying dead in arms.
Tara. Her beautiful girl. Gone. In just a moment, all that life, all that love had been taken away from her.
Her eyes turned black as she reached inside and let the only thing that could help consume her. A few seconds. A spell. She would find who had done this and they would pay. If she couldn’t have Tara, she didn’t care who or what she was anymore. She wasn’t Willow. Willow had died with Tara. She was vengeance now.
She made her way calmly down stairs and out the front door, taking measured steps, planning what she would do when she caught Tara’s killer. She’d make it slow. She’d make it hurt. Whoever it was, they’d be begging for death by the end.
“Willow? Willow! Stop.” Xander ran to catch up with his friend as she ignored his call.
“Xander.” Her voice was calm as she took in his blood-spattered shirt.
“Warren shot Buffy. He hit her arm so she’ll live but we really need to get to the hospital.”
“Tara’s dead.”
The calm with which the words were uttered sent an extra chill down Xander’s spine.
“What?”
“She was shot,” Willow continued just as calmly, never slowing her pace. “She’s dead.”
The young man stopped, expecting Willow to stop too, but she carried on walking. He didn’t chase after her. He needed a moment to wrap his mind around the fact that one of his closest friends was dead. It wasn’t something he could easily comprehend. How could Tara be dead? Sweet, undemanding, wouldn’t hurt a fly, Tara.
He looked around to see where Willow had gone and raced after her. “Willow!” She didn’t answer. Didn’t acknowledge him. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to kill him.”
“Who?”
“Warren.”
“Will please, you have to stop. We have to go back. The ambulance is on its way.”
“Won’t do any good. They won’t give her back to me.”
Xander stepped in front of her stopping her from taking another step. “You can’t kill him. We’ll find him and the cops’ll lock him up, but you can’t kill him. You’ll cross a line.”
“I’ve crossed it Xander. I’m there. Now get out of my way or…”
“Or what? You’re going to kill me too. Will, you have to stop and think about this.”
“No,” Willow said, raising her hand in front of Xander. “I’m done thinking. Now I’m doing.” With a wave of her hand Xander was thrown out of her path and into the street.
Willow didn’t pause for a second.
She didn’t hear the screech of brakes behind her.
Didn’t hear the frantic shouts of a young couple.
Paid no attention to the sirens wailing in the distance.
She just carried on walking.
*
Xander had been gone for about ten minutes when Buffy heard the sirens. Ignoring the pain in her arm, she made her way into the street to find her best friend. She frowned when she saw the ambulance parked haphazardly at the end of the street. Fear welled within her when she saw the hysterical young woman being questioned by a police officer. Bile rose up in her throat when a dark haired young man was lifted onto a stretcher.
“Xander,” she whispered, afraid that if she said it any louder it would be real. It would be Xander lying on that stretcher, paramedics standing over him. She raced up the street towards them, praying that she was wrong.
*
“Buffy? Xander?” Anya called out as she pushed the front door of the Summers house open cautiously. “If there’s a demon in here you better know that I’m not afraid of you. Eleven hundred years of vengeance. I’ve seen it all. Unless you’re a bunny demon of course, in which case, I surrender.” She looked up as she heard a clatter upstairs and slowly moved towards the staircase. “Hello? Willow? Tara? It’s me. Anya.”
The door to Willow and Tar’s bedroom stood open and with a deep breath Anya marched towards it determinedly. “You can’t do anything to scare me,” she murmured to herself,
She stopped short when she saw Tara’s body, lying lifeless in a pool of blood. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe.
“I didn’t want to leave her alone,” a soft voice drifted to her from the corner of the room and Anya’s gaze swung from Tara to Dawn. The young girl sat huddled in the corner, legs drawn up against her chest, arms wrapped protectively round her. Anya moved towards her immediately.
“Dawn, sweetheart, how long have you been here?” Dawn didn’t answer and after a moment of indecision, Anya wrapped an arm around her and helped her to her feet. “We have to go. You have to be brave for me ok. We need to go and call someone.”
Dawn’s eyes were still trained on Tara. “I don’t understand.”
Anya focused on Dawn, unable to bring herself to look at the body of her friend again. “Neither do I Dawnie. Neither do I.”
*
“Where is my husband?”
Buffy jumped up from her seat at the sound of Anya’s voice and called out to her friend. “Anya!”
The former demon spun away from the nurse’s station and moved towards her friend. “Buffy what’s happening? Where’s Xander?”
“He got knocked down by a car. He’s in surgery. I’ve been trying to call you for hours. Where have you been?”
Anya had gone deathly pale, her eyes staring out into nothing. Buffy didn’t press her for an answer, simply took her hand and guided her into a seat. Glancing up, she realised that Dawn had entered the room with Anya. In two steps she held her baby sister in her arms, holding her tight.
“Dawn, honey, thank God you’re ok. Did Anya bring you? I’m so so sorry I wasn’t there.” She began to stroke here sister’s hair comfortingly when she felt Dawn crying into her chest. “It’s ok sweetheart. Shhh. Everything will be ok.” Dawn shook her head and whispered something Buffy couldn’t hear. “What was that?”
“Tara’s dead.”
When the words finally penetrated the Slayer’s mind, the last of
her resolve broke and a year’s worth of emotion poured out of her
as she collapsed down between a shell-shocked Dawn and a shattered Anya.