By LivY
Feedback: Sure.
Distribution: Just ask.
Spoilers: Everything up to the Gift is game.
Disclaimers: I own nothing, not even the shirt on my back. Please don’t sue cause all you get is the $2.50 in my bank.
Summery: What if Tara never revealed Dawn as the key at the end of Tough Love?
Special thanks to Rayne’s Shooting Script site and Psyche Transcript site for the episode dialogue.
Note: thoughts are in [ ] and emphasis are in * *
***
BUFFY: What are you gonna need?
WILLOW: I don't know. They gave me a lot of stuff to ... keep her calm.
They both look at Tara, still being fed by Dawn.
WILLOW: (quietly) They said I might have to restrain her at night. But ... sometimes she's fine. She looks at me, and ... she's fine.
Tara makes an unhappy face.
BUFFY: I'm sorry I couldn't-
WILLOW: It's okay. I can do this. I'm gonna take care of her. Even if she never...
Dawn looks up at this.
WILLOW: (softly) She's my girl.
Buffy looks sympathetically at Willow, looks at Dawn and plays with a lock of Dawn's hair.
BUFFY: I understand.
WILLOW: (nods) I know you do.
They give each other small smiles.
WILLOW: (to Tara) Hear that, baby? (Tara looks at her) You're my always.
Willow kisses Tara on the forehead. Tara smiles.
Suddenly the entire outside wall smashes to pieces, exposing them to the outside. Dawn and Buffy jump up in alarm. Sunlight streams in.
Glory appears in the window, which is now just a broken frame with shards of glass hanging in it.
GLORY: I told you this wasn't over.
TARA: No. The place is cracking! It's cracking! Cracking, no, no, no!
Dawn looks anxiously at Tara as Willow tries to calm her.
DAWN: No, Tara, it's okay.
***
Glory laughs and starts after them. Willow holds up her hand while wrapping her other arm around Tara.
WILLOW: (Russian) Air becomes FIST!
Glory goes flying backward, off the side of the building into some bushes.
BUFFY: Run!
The four of them take off through the door and out of the building, various students get knocked down as the four of them head for the main road. Just as they reach the street, Glory appears out of nowhere.
GLORY: Okay, slay-runt I want my key! Or else I'll do what I did to her (Points to Tara) to all your stupid friends until I find it.
TARA: Oooh, big shiny truck.
Glory looks to her right, too late, as a huge semi smashes into her. The four of them run off in the other direction.
BUFFY: Regroup at Xanders.
Glory lands on her back on top of a parked car, smashing its roof in. She starts to sit up, and then stops with a jerk.
GLORY: No! Not now, you idiot! Let go-
She morphs into Ben.
BEN: -of my body!
Ben rolls off the car onto the ground, looks around. He's wearing Glory's dress.
BEN: Oh, god.
At Xanders apartment the whole gang is sitting quietly and listening to Dawn's retelling of the earlier events, while Buffy is looking out the window scanning for Glory and her Minions
DAWN: So, we're all like eating our food when Glory rips through the wall all dramatic and stuff, she's about to make a move when Willow goes Wicca on her and sends her flying halfway across campus. The four of us jet, and then whoosh! All of a sudden Glory's standing right there in front of us all skanky and blonde and thinkin' she's all that just 'cause some bumpy heads kiss her stinky feet ... (pauses, very quietly) She does have nice feet. A-and she's comin' right at us, and Tara points out that a truck is coming then, wham! (smacks one fist into the other hand) Hell-bitch in orbit.
Buffy turns around and looks at the gang.
BUFFY: That shouldn't have slowed her down for more than a second. She'll be coming for us again and she'll go through each and every one of us like she did Tara until she gets to Dawn.
The gang looks at Tara, who is being held closely by Willow and they all contemplate a future like that, lost and alone in their own minds and forever being taken care of by some stranger that they will never know.
GILES: We'll find a way to beat her. There must be something in the Book of Tarnis that we've missed, something we can use against Glory.
ANYA: At least we know the truck method works.
BUFFY: (ignoring Anya) We don't have the time! She's a God, she's not going to sit back and lick her wounds. She'll come for us again and again and again, so lets not be here when she knocks.
XANDER: Are you saying we should run?
BUFFY: We can't beat her and if we stay, we die. A show of hands for that. (everyone looks down) Nobody goes home, nobody tells anybody we're leaving. We'll gather some supplies and then we're gone.
XANDER: (quietly) What about wheels? I don't think everybody's gonna fit in the Xandermobile.
BUFFY: (turns around to look out the window) I'll take care of that.
***
Ben running into the main room.
BEN: You have to let me out.
Dawn follows him in. The others begin to gather.
DAWN: Ben?
BEN: You don't understand, I gotta get out, open a door now!
Buffy and Spike run up next to Dawn.
BUFFY: What happened?
DAWN: I-I don't know, he just freaked out.
BEN: (frantically) Let me out!
BUFFY: Okay, W-Will, open a door.
Willow turns away from Tara to see what's going on.
BEN: No! Aaaah!
Ben puts his hands to his head and suddenly morphs into Glory, who turns the movement into a stretch. She slowly brings her arms down and looks around. Buffy and Dawn stare in horror. Buffy pushes Dawn behind her. Glory looks around in surprise. Willow scared, reaches for Tara and moves in front to guard her. Glory begins to smile. Xander and Anya shocked with what just happened.
GLORY: Well, what do you know? Little Ben finally did something right.
GREGOR: The beast.
GLORY: Hey, it's Gregor.
She grabs a hubcap that's hanging nearby and throws it like a Frisbee. It flies into the general's chest. Everyone stares. Gregor falls forward against his bonds, dead.
GLORY: Now it's not. (turns to look at Buffy) Okay, Slayer for the last time. Where. Is. My. Key?
BUFFY: Try checking under the doormat.
GLORY: (evil smile) Okay, you had your chance now it's time for you all to die!
Glory goes for Buffy but just at this moment the clerics penetrate the barrier and the knights rush in.
DANTE: (looks at the general) They've killed the general. (notices Glory) The Beast! Attack!
A battle erupts. The knights attack both the Scooby gang and Glory. Buffy is keeping the knights off Dawn while Xander and Anya are holding their own. Willow is slowly loosing ground as she tries to defend herself and protect Tara. Glory is cutting through the knights like butter. She bumps into Willow, picks her up by the throat and lifts her up off the ground.
GLORY: The key?
Willow chokes out a simple no as blood drips from her mouth.
GLORY: Fine, then you get to join your lover.
Glory places her free hand to Willow's temple. Huddled nearby, Tara see's this her heart screams for her to save Willow but her mind is still scrambling for clarity, then by sheer will the fog lifts for a moment and she tackles Glory at full hilt. Knocking Willow from her grasp, Tara and Glory end up as a heap on the floor. Unfortunately Glory gets up first and grabs Tara by her neck, lifting her up with no effort.
GLORY: I've had it with you witches and since I've already sucked your brain, I really don't need you alive.
With a sickening crunch Glory crushes Tara's neck. She unceremoniously drops Tara's limp body to the floor and heads towards the gang, knocking away the knights along the way.
GLORY: Okay, who's next?
Willow gets up, still groggy notices Tara's body and crawls towards it.
WILLOW: Tara? (sees the neck at an odd angle and feels for a pulse) Nooo!! Tara! TARA!
Willow cradles Tara's body as she brakes down and cries. A few seconds later she looks up, her cheeks streaked by tears. She looks at the chaos surrounding her, her friends fighting, the knights dying at the hands of Glory, her lover's dead body in her hands and in that moment all that kept her control in check snapped. Her eyes turned to black as she chants in Sumerian, the air around her electrifies. Lightning erupts from her and ripples through all the knights and Glory like an electric net, holding them a couple of inches of the floor as they wreath in agony. The rest of the gang, unaffected by the lightning, slowly moves towards Willow.
BUFFY: (concerned) Willow?
WILLOW: It ends now!
The floating bodies start to shake more violently sparks of light slowly rises out of each of the bodies. As the spark rises out of Glory's body, she morphs back to Ben. The bodies fall into lifeless heaps onto the floor as the sparks combined into one and explodes into a bright flash causing everyone but Willow to cover their eyes. The light dissipates, Buffy walks over to Willow who is still cradling Tara's body. She kneels down and looks at Tara, checks for a pulse. Not finding any, she looks up and shakes her head to the rest of the gang.
BUFFY: I'm sorry Willow.
WILLOW: We can fix this. We have to fix this. There has to be a spell.
GILES: I'm sorry Willow but I don't think there is anything we can do with the extent of damage she suffered. Life and death are very dangerous things to mess with magically, she even said that the magical and the medical should not be crossed.
WILLOW: I just killed a hundred or so people a second ago (starting to scream) so don't lecture me about LIFE OR DEATH!
GILES: Alright, but we don't have the resources here and by the time we get back to the magic shop, the damage to her brain will be too long, so what you bring back may not be Tara. (Buffy and Dawn share a look)
WILLOW: But we have to try!
GILES: Yes, but we have to think, would Tara want that? Would she want to return in that state?
WILLOW: (sobbing) No
She hugs Tara's body closer as her tears overwhelm her.
***
Buffy's house. Willow is lying on Buffy's bed, obviously still crying as discarded tissues surround her. Buffy knocks lightly on the opened door to get Willow's attention and then walks into the room.
BUFFY: Hey Will, I made breakfast. Do you want to comedown and have some?
WILLOW: (turns to look at Buffy, then shakes her head) It hurts, Buffy. It hurts so much that I can barely breath with out her.
BUFFY: (sits down on the edge of the bed) I know and I wish I could say that it does get better but...[it doesn't really does it?]
WILLOW: I don't want it to get better because if it gets better, it means that I'm forgetting and I don't want to forget. I want the pain to continue forever if it means I'll remember her forever. She was my everything.
Willow begins sobbing again. Buffy takes her best friend’s head, puts it on her own lap and starts stroking her red hair.
BUFFY: You don't forget, you never forget. You just learn to deal with them being physically gone but they'll live inside you forever and no one can take that away.
WILLOW: Did you...with your mom?
BUFFY: I'm trying.
Downstairs, Giles is in the kitchen looking at a sheet of paper with three phone numbers on it, two of them scratched out after begin dialed but with no results. Taking a deep breath, he picks up the phone and dials the last number. After two rings the line picks up
GILES: Hello, is Mr. Maclay there?
MACLAY: Speaking.
GILES: This is Rupert Giles from Sunnydale and I'm calling with news about your daughter, Tara.
MACLAY: (vehemently) I have no daughter. (hangs up)
GILES: Bastard.
Just as he is about to dial again, Buffy walks into the kitchen.
BUFFY: Is Dawn at school?
GILES: Yes, I dropped her off.
BUFFY: Did you get a hold of Tara's father?
GILES: Yes, I just got off the phone with him. He wouldn't even acknowledge her, then he hanged up. (pause) How is she?
BUFFY: The same. It's gonna be awhile for her to deal. Her girlfriend died after saving her life and in a fit of rage she killed a hundred or so knights. She has both grief and guilt to work through.
GILES: And what about you?
BUFFY: (a weak smile) I'm fine... You know what, no I'm not fine. I'm the poster child for the opposite of fine. I've had to deal with two deaths in less then two weeks, I am responsible for the key that holds all the dimensions together, my best friend is falling apart up in my room, and my destiny involves me killing all that is Unholy to protect this stupid world. Giles, I'm twenty years old. I'm suppose to be going to parties, dating football players, shopping for cloths with my friends, my biggest worries right now should be what I want to major in school, not if we will even live past tomorrow. It just never stops, does it? It will keep on coming and coming, there will always be one evil after another. It's not fair.
GILES: No, it never is.
Giles takes a hold of her as she starts to cry.
***
"...Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust..."
The gang is walking away from the burial plot with Buffy literally holding up Willow, when Tara's father appears out from behind a tree.
WILLOW: Mr. Maclay.
He slaps Willow across her face. Buffy grabs him by the collar of his shirt and the rest of the gang is ready to jump too.
WILLOW: (quietly) It's okay guys. Buffy, let him go, please.
MACLAY: This is all your fault, witch. You and your friends corrupted my daughter. She would still be alive if you had let me take her home where she belongs. Now my daughter is dead and it's all because of you and your magic. What do you have to say for yourself, huh?
WILLOW: [She would've hit him or at least screamed at him, hell she would've sent him flying out of Sunnydale without the benefit of a plane but she just didn't have the energy to deal with this right now, so all she could do was say] I'm sorry, I loved her very much and I'm sorry. (turns to Buffy) Please let's go home now.
BUFFY: Yeah, come on lets go.
The gang heads towards the cars.
GILES: Xander, can you take the girls home. I have to finish up the paper work here.
XANDER: Sure, Giles.
At Mr.Maclay's car, he unlocks the door and starts to get in when Giles comes up from behind, grabs him, turns him around and slams him against the side of the car
MACLAY: Now, you just wait a...
GILES: Shut up and listen, and listen very carefully. I don't know who do you think you are or where you got the gall to walk in here Holier-then thou and start pointing fingers. I don't pretend to know what are the specifics that occurred in your family but what I do know is that you manipulated and lied to Tara. You made your own daughter believe that she was a demon and told her that she should be afraid of herself. You were her father for God sake! The woman that I had the privilege to know for too brief a time was intelligent, funny, gifted, and was happy here. If you didn't see that then you don't deserve to be her father. (turns to leave, then stops) One more thing, if you ever come near anyone of us again (grabs the hand that Mr. Maclay slapped Willow with and breaks it at the wrist) I'll break all the other bones in your body. (leaves)
***
Willow is sitting in the corner of the upstairs balcony with the "private collections," reading her journal. Downstairs Anya is helping Giles close up the register.
ANYA: That's the forth time she's read through that thing.
GILES: She just doesn't want to forget, that's all. The journal helps her relive all their moments together.
ANYA: Well, human memories are unreliable but then the written word often lies though.
Giles shakes his head and locks the cash tray in the cabinet below. Upstairs, Willow flips to the next page of the journal, her favorite journal, actually. This was the first journal that Tara had bought for Willow. She had seen that Willow went through the first journal in less then a week. Willow remembered explaining to Tara about the lengths of the entries.
WILLOW: I want every second we spend together recorded, documented, indexed, and footnoted.
TARA: Well, I hope not *every* detail is written down. We wouldn't want someone to accidentally read this and find out about some of our more intimate activities.
WILLOW: (mischievous smile) Well, at least they might learn something.
They both fell into a pile of giggles after that, which then led to those previously stated activities that will never be written. The next day Tara came to Willow's dorm with a box full of journals and cases of pens. She said that she wanted Willow to have all the room she needs for the time that they will be spending together. Then she gave Willow one of her special I-Love-You-So-Much smiles that was especially reserved for Willow.
WILLOW: (crying) I miss you so much. I can't do this without you.
GILES: (from downstairs) Did you say something, Willow? Are you all right?
WILLOW: No, nothing Giles. I'm fine.
GILES: Well, I'll be done in about five minutes, I can drop you off at Buffy's if you want.
WILLOW: Sure, Thanks.
Willow closes her journal and starts to pack her stuff in her bag and realizes that her pen is missing. It's the one that Tara had inscribed with Willow's name on it. Willow scrounges around looking for it and then notices a shiny object partially hidden by a piece of fabric hanging off the corner of the shelf. She removes the fabric, revealing her pen and a clay jar underneath. Willow recognizes some of the symbols carved of the side of the jar.
WILLOW: [It looks like really early Greek. Something about the "well of time". No, that not right, it's the "will of time."]
Her curiosity piqued, Willow opens the jar. She finds two scrolls rolled up inside, after slowly pulling them out, she carefully unrolls them.
WILLOW: (looking at the scroll) Oh My God!
TBC
-------------------------------
Now before you all lynch me, good will come out of this.
Many apologies for my errors. Any one want to volunteer for my Beta read cause as you see I need one.
[This message has been edited by FlyingBunny (edited July 31, 2001).]