Hey guys. Just finished ch. 11 hope you like it
Foreverpiper: Thanx! I think i just found one of your stories today too, so we're even!
ok, here it is
-michelle
Rating, Disclaimer, summary etc the same as the first chapters
Feedback: Yes Please!!!
Ch. 11
Osiris waited impatiently for the soul to come to him. He had spent hours thinking up a way to get revenge on the witch and her lover, and had finally come to a solution that suited him. He grinned evilly as the spirit of the man he needed to carry out his plans approached him. The dark haired man bowed, his forehead touching the ground in front of Osiris.
“Rise, servant.” The man obeyed, his gaze resting squarely on Osiris.
“Why have you summoned me?” He demanded. Osiris grinned again at his question.
“I have a task for you. It involves the witch who raised her lover almost two days ago.” The man's dark eyes flashed in hatred at the mention of the girl.
“Her.” He growled. “I will not assist her. I am here because of her.”
“I know.” Osiris answered. “I do not wish for you to help her. I wish for you to kill her, but first, kill the one she loves.” The man nodded, his eyes now showing an excited gleam. “I will reward you with the power she had to take revenge on the others who crossed you in that world. Do you accept?” The man's eyes flashed greedily at the thoughts of power as he accepted.
“Gladly.” Warren assured Osiris, grinning madly.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Willow and Tara entered the kitchen holding hands. They immediately noticed a change in the mood as they walked through the doorway. Everyone turned to them, grateful that they had relieved what had been a very tense moment, or, more accurately, a string of moments that had lasted for several minutes now ever since Anya and Xander had entered the room. Willow glanced questioningly at Buffy, who shook her head, signaling 'later.' Willow nodded, and dragged Tara over to the stove to begin the pancakes.
Anya sat across the table, looking uncomfortably at Xander. Things had been even more strained between them than usual since her slip the night before, when she'd hit him for drooling over Willow and Tara together. She had been surprised at the jealousy she felt, and, not one to think about something before acting, had hit him, making things much worse by adding that he could only look at her that way. When Buffy and Dawn had recovered from their laughter, they had noticed the weird silence between the ex-fiancés, Xander's face plainly asking a question and Anya's looking very upset. Niether of them had spoken very much more before they could finally fall asleep (sometime after three), and awkward silence had taken control again when they walked into the kitchen seconds apart.
“Funny shapes or rounds?” Tara's voice cut into their thoughts, making everyone grin.
“Both.” Dawn, Willow, and Buffy replied at the same time, and their grins grew wider. All through breakfast, the four girls covered the quiet that was usually filled with Anya's daily “Go money go” talk, as Xander had once called it, with light-hearted chatter and a little teasing from Dawn. As the dishes were being taken care of, Giles broke the forced conversation with a serious question.
“Now, I know we're all glad to have Tara back,” his face took on the look that Buffy had accurately named “but-face” more than a year ago, “but we need to figure out what caused it. We have to make sure it isn't something evil, and that it's not,” he faltered and looked to the couple, who were practically on each other's laps in the chairs, “well, temporary.” Willow's face paled.
“It, it could be temporary?” she squeaked. “I mean, I could just wake up one morning and she'd be gone, like 'poof?'” Giles shook his head.
“No, no, just listen to me. From what we can gather, none of us did anything that would have brought her back, so that means something else did. And as much as we'd like to believe it was something good, it probably wasn't. And if it was a dark force, they probably had a reason for it. Once that reason is gone, or their goal is accomplished…”
“Poof?” Willow asked, in a much calmer tone than before. Giles nodded.
“We just have to figure out what it was that happened yesterday that caused her to come back and-”
“Um, question?” Willow asked tentatively, raising her hand.
“Yes.” Giles turned to her.
'Well, lets say, hypothetically, I kinda went to a certain person's grave yesterday. And lets say that while I was there, I started crying, and a crystal I had started glowing, and I had a really weird dream and didn't wake up until that night. Would that hypothetical me have anything to do with this at all?” As Willow spoke, Tara felt a little dizzy. She could hear Willow talking, but her words were blurring together and changing, exactly like the kitchen of the Summers house was doing around her. Suddenly everything was white, and she could hear Willow crying somewhere far off. An image flashed briefly before her eyes of Willow kneeling in their room, with her own unmoving body in her lover's arms. After another brief flash of white Willow was lying almost flat on the ground by a headstone, crying as something on the ground beside her started to glow. Then she was back in the white that seemed strangely like a prison to her. As a line of black opened at her feet and swallowed her, she could hear a weird thunder in her ears. Everything went dark, and then slowly faded back to the kitchen, where she found she was lying on the ground with the entire gang gathered around her, Willow supporting her head in her lap.
“Tara, Tara, please wake up, come on, please.” The frantic note in Willow's voice caused her to open her eyes, and she immediately found light kisses placed all over her face.
“Are you okay? What happened? Did somebody do something?” Her girlfriend asked all of the questions without taking a breath, her eyes darting over Tara's body quickly to make sure no one had harmed her.
“It was you.” Tara breathed, still half caught in her dream world. As soon as she said it she frowned, wondering what she was talking about.
“I did something?” Willow asked, her voice filled with disbelief.
'No, you brought me back. I was in,” Tara thought a minute to the white world she had briefly been in. “some kind of heavenly dimension, and when you cried at my grave, you did something, it brought me back.” Willow inhaled sharply. Her mind reeled as she dropped her hands from where they had been stroking Tara's hair. She struggled not to cry as she spoke, her voice coming out distorted from the effort.
“Oh God, Tara, I'm sorry.” She buried her face in her hands. Tara had been in heaven. She hadn't even thought about it after she had seen that Tara was back, but now the reality came crashing down on her. Now that Tara remembered where she had been, this was probably a hell for her like I had been for Buffy. She tried to stand up, to get away from Tara, who probably hated her now, but Tara's hand on her knee stopped her.
“Willow, what-”
“I did it again.” Willow breathed through her tears, horrified. “You were in heaven, and I tore you out of there. Me. I'm supposed to love you, and I can't even let you be happy. Goddess, Tara, I'm sorry. I didn't know.” She choked, and the tears began to flow freely as she failed to hold in the sobs. “I didn't mean to, I thought it was under control, it wasn't-” Tara placed a finger over her lips, effectively silencing her. Willow's chest heaved with the effort of holding in her grief, but she kept quiet.
“Sweetie, I said I was in a heavenly dimension, not heaven.” Willow's brow creased as she frowned in confusion. “I don't remember much, but, I can just tell, I wasn't happy there. In the dream, it, it was like a prison.” Tara was frowning now too, trying to find the right way to put this. “It just made me feel trapped.” Willow tried to speak, failed, and took a moment to compose herself. She took a deep breath, and asked quietly,
“So this isn't hell to you?” Tara was amazed at how fragile she looked, and how quickly all of the little things that made Willow look so haunted could return.
“No. Very far from it, actually.” Willow breathed an audible sigh of relief, settling back down to her position on the floor. Tara sat up, looking around at the rest of the gang, who had conveniently found different ways to back up a few feet but still watch the interaction between them. Dawn had tears running down her cheeks, and Giles was repeatedly cleaning his glasses, trying to look casual about it, while Xander exchanged a nervous glance with Anya, both hurriedly looking away when they caught the others eyes. Willow and Tara slowly stood up as Giles broke the silence.
“Well, that does, uh, change a lot. Perhaps you could tell me about your dream, Tara. I could try to piece together-”
“I will.” Tara promised, but turned to Willow. “But, could I ask about how, it, you know, happened.” Willow nodded resignedly. She had to tell her, but she still was going to have a hard time facing the look she knew would appear on Tara's face when she heard…
“Will.” Buffy stepped forward. “I can tell her, if you want.” Willow shook her head after a second's hesitation.
“I need to tell her. I'll…” she glanced at Tara. “I can handle it.” Buffy nodded and stepped back, giving them room. Willow took Tara's hand.
“Can we go outside?” It would be even harder for her to tell the story if the Scooby gang, the ones she had hurt the most, were gathered around while she spoke. Tara nodded and silently let Willow lead her outside to the bench in their yard. She wasn't blind, she could tell this was about something more than her death, but she would wait as long as Willow needed her to to find out. They sat on the bench and Willow took a deep breath.
“Do you remember seeing Buffy and Xander talking out here? Right here actually?” Tara nodded, and Willow continued.
“They ended up making up. Again, right here actually. But then Warren came.” Tara frowned.
“But I thought Buffy beat him. You know, the night before.” Willow nodded.
“But he wasn't too happy about it. He yelled some stuff, then he pulled out a gun. He, he shot Buffy. He turned around to leave, but he was still shooting. His arm came up, and he, he,” Willow couldn't speak any more, she was too choked up, and she knew that if she started crying now, she wouldn't be able to stop. Tara's hand made soothing circles on her back as the blonde waited patiently for her to continue.
“One of the bullets came through our window. You were standing in front of it. You didn't really know what had happened, you just said 'your shirt' and fell over.” Willow again had to stop, and this time it took Tara's hand on her back and another one in her hair to comfort her.
“I caught you, but, you were gone.” Willow had to pause almost every word now, her breath was coming in gasps. When Tara tried to comfort her this time, though, she pulled away. She didn't deserve this, Tara didn't know what she'd done, otherwise she would be far away by now.
“What is it Willow. You can tell me. It's okay.” Willow put her head in her hands, standing up as Tara once again tried to embrace her, shaking her head.
“Tara, I lost control.” She saw fear enter Tara's eyes at this. “I tried to bring you back, but Osiris wouldn't, he wouldn't let me.” Tara felt another memory form at the back of her mind but suppressed it; she needed to be here to hear this from Willow right now.
“When he said no, I went crazy. I let the magick take over, I didn't care anymore. I didn't see the point in fighting. I killed Warren.” Willow had to fight down the urge to vomit as she remembered the steaming, skinless corpse she had left behind. “Not just killed him, I tortured him, and I enjoyed it. I killed Rack too, for his power. I tried to make Dawn the key again. I almost killed Giles and Buffy. I used a mind control spell on Anya and almost killed her too. I tried to end the world, and gave Xander a scar when he stopped me.” Tara had noticed the faint pink marks on Xander's face the night before, but had assumed that they too would be explained. Tried to end the world? The way Willow had recited what she'd done, like facts memorized from a sheet, had made Tara focus on the smaller details before actually registering what she'd said. She looked up at Willow, intending to ask her question with her eyes, but Willow was already beyond being able to look at her. She wondered why, with this new information, she wasn't feeling afraid of Willow, didn't want to run away from her, wasn't feeling even a little bit differently towards her girlfriend. Maybe it was the state she had seen the redhead in when she first came back, or how fragile she still was; there were so many things that had made her cry since Tara had come back. Maybe the months of separation had done something, or maybe it was the fact that all of this had happened because she died, but Tara couldn't even consider walking away from Willow over this. The first time they had been separated, after the forget spell, Tara had been able to leave because she knew she was doing the right thing and that it would help Willow. Now, though, she was sure it would not be at all right to abandon her lover, and she wasn't sure she could leave her again if she was. Willow, though, didn't know any of this, and continued to sob harder and harder, waiting hopelessly for the words of goodbye that would tear her apart.
“Willow-” Tara began, but Willow, raised a hand, wondering how she still had the strength to do so after everything.
'Please, don't. I can't-” Tara stopped Willow's words with a fierce kiss, enveloping Willow in her arms so tightly that the redhead couldn't pull away again. She slowly lowered them onto the bench. Willow slowly opened her eyes as the kiss ended, her face filled with disbelief.
“Tara?” She asked quietly, still unable to believe that Tara wasn't running away from her.
“I'm still here sweetie. I always will be. I love you.” Tara stated simply, but her voice was so full of caring Willow thought her heart would burst.
“I love you too.” She managed to get the words out as her throat tightened, and she moved over to embrace Tara in an end of the world kiss, closing her eyes tightly.
“Warren.” Willow growled. The mixture of hate and pain mixed into that word gave Tara chills as she separated from Willow to look over at the gate, where she found, to her horror, the supposedly dead leader of the trio was standing.
“Aww, two Scoobies sharing a touching moment by the gate. I think I remember this one.” He said coldly, as he reached into his jacket.
“Warren-” Tara began, but he cut her off.
“No, wait, I know this one. Hmmm…” He glanced up triumphantly, and they both gasped to see that both of his eyes were solid black, with red energy crackling in them.
Oh ya.” He cleared is throat, and pulled a gun out. “Did you think you could just do that to me? Did you think I'd let you get away with that?” He flashed them a maniacal grin. “Think again.” Willow, who was frozen in shock and fear, found herself pushed to the ground by Tara as the gun went off.
“No!” She screamed as she fell to the ground helplessly, watching the gun Warren had pointed directly at Tara.
TBC...