Love everything so far but a update would be nice.

Tara: Assume Crash
Positions

Quote:

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Love everything so far but a update would be nice.

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As I said the next story is finished but it seems an email went AWOL and my beta reader didn't get it, so I had to resend it, I have my fingers crossed for the next couple of days.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Title: Heart of Stone

Author: Mike Mullen

Rating: NC-17/18 because of sex, violence and adult themes.

Spoilers: None what so ever

Disclaimer: All the original BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and ME, everyone else in the stories are my personal slaves.

Summary: Willow and Tara are on campus, and find that it isn’t only the demons that are causing them trouble.

Authors notes: This begins an S4 arc that takes in the Initiative and some old enemies as well.

Feedback: Just add your comments at the end of the story.





Heart of Stone



1. “Clear as Crystal”



Tara moved slowly along the edge of the dance floor; oblivious to the couples leaning on one another and slowly circling to the music in the dimly lit Bronze. To Tara’s eyes the people were ghostly and the club was shining like polished metal. She had tuned her senses to a different plane, searching for a target that was concealed from any ordinary sense. Tara caught a flicker out of the corner of her eye, a dark spot in the luminescence. She turned towards it and it vanished, Tara wasn’t going to be fooled, she focused all her attention on that one place and a shadowy something emerged.

        Trying to cross the dance floor while keeping her attention on the dark spot wasn’t easy. The dancers might look insubstantial but they were perfectly solid when the slammed into her. She muttered apologies and ignored the pain in her right foot inflicted by a high heel, nothing was going to keep her from her goal. The dark shape moved as Tara approached but she wasn’t going to be put off. She sidestepped and reached out and grabbed at thin air, allowing her vision to shift back to normal and letting the Bronze turn from a magical shining place back into its dark dingy self.

Tara seemed simply to be holding her hand out in front of her for a moment and then a black clad, red headed figure materialized in her grasp. “Gotcha!” Tara grinned as she spoke and Willow made a face before she straightened up and let Tara get a good look at her outfit, then it was her turn to smile at the look that spread across Tara’s face.



When she had met Willow’s vampire incarnation Tara had been extremely disturbed by it. Not so much by its wanton evil as the fact it had singled her out in the Bronze for special attention, even undead Willow still exhibited a passionate interest in Tara. When Willow had replaced her evil self in an attempt to affect a rescue she had teased Tara to let her know that it was her living, breathing, girlfriend. Afterwards Tara had expressed a momentary regret that Willow had to give the outfit back to the vampire. Tara hadn’t really thought of it since, Willow however had clearly filed it away in some corner of her mind. Now Tara was staring at an outfit that was near as damn it identical. “I told you I had a surprise if you found me.” Willow kissed Tara hungrily as she stood there still trying to take it in. The way the bodice lifted Willow’s boobs and made them so ‘noticeable’. The way the leather trousers clung to her butt and thighs, emphasizing those curves that were so familiar to Tara and yet never lost their fascination. “So do you want to dance or get a drink?” Willow asked with mock naivety.

Tara took her by that hand, “Actually I think I want an early night.”



Willow wondered if they had somehow teleported to the dorm room door. One moment they were standing in the Bronze and the next they were fumbling with the door key. Only the recollection of heated fumbling and kissing in the courtyard suggested they had arrived by conventional means. The room was much bigger than the one Tara had first occupied. After The ugly incident with Kathy Buffy had traded rooms with the couple and taken over Tara’s old single. Of course the first priority had been to convert the two single beds into a double. Willow dragged Tara into the room. “So you liked your surprise then?” Willow asked.

“Oh yes, it’s very nice.” Tara answered with deliberate understatement.

“And it looks better on me than on, well, the other me.” Willow teased.

Tara cocked her head to one side, “Honey of course it looks better on you. I mean yeah she had a hot body, but there is no comparison,” she assured Willow.

Willow drew Tara closer, “So you didn’t like her take charge attitude?”

Tara looked pensive, “I didn’t say that.”

“In that case come with me wench.” Willow drew her towards the bed and the pair fell on to it. Willow quickly moved on top of Tara, more or less pinning her to the bed, less really as Tara knew she could easily wriggle out, she just didn’t want to.

“So now I have you in my power, I can have my wicked way with you.” Willow announced, trying to reproduce the tone of her doppelganger, and failing badly. She did manage an evil grin however as she bent over and nuzzled Tara’s neck, kissing and sucking, and giving Tara pretty good hickey. Tara was wearing a loose v-necked sweater and Willow moved her hand under the neck and snagged her bra straps. She pushed the sweater and the straps down over Tara’s shoulders and kept tugging until she freed Tara’s breasts from the bra. “Hmm, juicy,” she murmured and moved down to place her mouth over Tara’s left breast and gently bit the nipple.

Tara squealed theatrically, “I thought vampires preferred necks.”

“That is so passé.” Willow explained before going back to work on the breasts. Somehow Willow managed to work Tara’s bra and sweater off while still paying close attention to the body they were wrapped around. With her arms freed from the tangle Tara found the zipper that held Willow’s leather bodice in place and pulled it down, letting the bodice slide down and off. Willow through it aside with a sigh, as good as it might look it was so constricting, especially when she wanted to feel Tara against her. She quickly peeled off the leather trousers and dragged off Tara’s remaining clothes. She really couldn’t blame her doppelganger for being so drawn to Tara; clearly she just had excellent taste.

Tara watched Willow climbing on to the bed in a cat like manner; she licked her lips and then turned and straddled Tara, lowering her face into Tara’s sex. Tara let a long gasp as she felt Willows tongue gently probing all the most sensitive spots with a precision born of long familiarity. Despite the difficulty of concentrating, Tara managed to reach out with her mind and touch Willow’s; now each surge of her pleasure was Willow’s as well. Tara reached up and let her hands massage Willow’s butt before she pulled Willow’s hips down and drew Willows’ sex against her mouth. Now the telepathic link let Willow’s sensations flow into her mind, and it didn’t simply add to the pleasure, it multiplied it.



Walking across the campus grounds with an armful of papers to mark Maggie Walsh’s mind was otherwise occupied with Initiative business, the final decisions on exactly what components to build into 314 had to be made. There were no shortage of choices in Sunnydale, some of the HST’s really did seem almost supernatural and it was hardly surprising that some of her people still fell into the bad habit of using mythological names for them, it was an ongoing effort to remind them that these were animals, exotic ones, but still animals. A growling noise from nearby brought her to a halt, a stray dog? The animal burst out of the darkness, it was a mass of fur and teeth, vulpine not canine. The Professor was taken over by pure instinct; she threw the papers at the beast and ran. The creature was distracted for a moment by the flurry of paper, but the scent of human fear filled its nostrils and it quickly gave chase. Walsh barely got twenty yards before the werewolf was upon her. As she struck the ground the breath was knocked out of her, so she couldn’t even scream as teeth and claws tore into her.

The scene that greeted Forrest was horrendous; the wolf thing crouched on top of the Professors remains, playing with them like some grisly chew toy. “Get off of her you son of a bitch!” He cried while grabbing at the stun gun in his jacket pocket. The wolf turned to look at him and leapt. Forrest moved sideways and drove his arm forward, jamming the taser into the werewolf’s chest and hitting the button. The force of the impact nearly tore Forrest’s arm out of its socket; the thirty thousand volts did the job though and sent the creature flying backwards. It lay on the ground dazed and confused while Forrest gathered his wits. Filled with rage he stood over the creature and brought his boot down on its throat again and again, until the thing brought up foamy bloody with every breath and then quit breathing all together.

Forrest looked back at the Professor, there was nothing he could do to help her and that meant he had to concentrate on his job, control and containment. With a few muttered curses he managed to drag the remains of the werewolf back into the bushes it had come from, it would be safe until he could round up a squad and turn it over to the scientists to do whatever they liked with it. Forrest paused for a moment; he knew he would have to get the professor off the path as well; there would be too many questions if she were found like that. He almost jumped out of his skin at the sounds of a girl’s scream. “Oh my god! David call 911, call 911!” she was yelling hysterically. Forrest looked out at the scene; there were half a dozen dazed, confused students standing over the Professor’s remains. One was puking up and another had a cell phone pressed to his ear and was demanding police and an ambulance, containment had just ceased to be an issue.



2. “Hard Rain”



The week following Professor Walsh’s death had been one long suckfest. The police crawling all over the campus pursuing their theory of some drugged crazed mugger had simply helped to plunge the campus into an even deeper gloom, all the life just seemed to have been sucked out of the place. Willow knew that however bad it was for everyone else it was worse for Buffy. There was no getting away from the fact that Maggie Walsh had been killed by something not someone, and that made it Slayer business, which in turn made it her fault for not saving the Professor. “Do you think she’ll be ready?” Tara wondered.

        “I think so, she won’t want to be late for the service.” Willow responded.

        “Do you think we should have helped more with the patrolling? I mean Buffy’s been out practically till dawn the past couple of nights.”

Tara was echoing the thoughts Willow had been having, and she gave Tara the answer she had given herself, “Honey we couldn’t keep up with her, she’s been kind of manic and I don’t really think she wanted the company.”

“I guess so. I hope this is going to help her, and everyone else.” Tara commented somberly.

Willow shared that hope, her lover was super sensitive to people’s emotions, and living with all this gloom and depression wasn’t good for her. Not that Tara was thinking of her own needs of course, she was always more worried about everyone else. Willow slid her arm around Tara’s waist and pulled her closer, Tara did the same grateful for the warmth she drew from that gesture.



Buffy had taken quite a while to decide what to wear, not because she wanted to make some big fashion statement, more because she didn’t want to look like she was on her way to a party. She had a few black dresses in her closet; all of them though were short and pretty skimpy. In the end she settled on one of those and a sweater she normally saved for patrolling. It wasn’t exactly elegant but it would do. When she opened the door Willow and Tara seemed to approve of their choice. “You look nice Buffy, in a proper, respectful way.” Willow offered.

“Thanks, you do too. You ‘d think after all, all the things we’ve been through this would get easier.” Buffy was just fretting out loud.

“Actually Buffy if it did I think that’s when you should start worrying.” Tara suggested, and Willow nodded in agreement.



The decision to hold the memorial in the theatre where Professor Walsh had lectured had been a nice gesture; it had just grossly underestimated how many people would want to attend. There were people sat in the aisles and squeezed against the walls at the sides and back of the hall. Tara hadn’t known the professor except by sight and reputation, Psych 101 had been a little too cold and clinical for her taste, and yet there were clearly a lot of people who had felt the death of Maggie Walsh very personally. She scanned the crowd looking for the one person she had been sure would show up, there was however no sign of Riley Finn. Buffy and Willow had tried to call him to see how he was doing but he seemed to have dropped out of sight. Tara could respect that, some people wanted to share their grief; others preferred to be alone and deal with it privately. After her mother died Tara had barely come out of her room for a month, of course that was mostly because she couldn’t expect to get any support from her father or brother.

        With the stifling atmosphere the speeches were mercifully short but heartfelt. Willow was a little surprised how many of the frat boys from Lowell House had shown up, maybe they were more sensitive than their macho exteriors suggested, or maybe she had just lost the ability to read men through lack of practice. Either way it was a nice gesture.

As they made their way out the campus cop stood by the door caught Buffy's attention as she tried to make her way out of the lecture theatre. Partly it was the fact that he didn't fit in with the other people who wore the uniform of campus security. They were mostly ex-cops who had retired and took the job as a cushy number; this guy was about twenty years too young for that. The other thing that got her attention was the way he filled his uniform. He was well over six feet tall, broad shouldered and muscular. As Buffy tore her attention away from the physique she also noticed that he had dark hair and a well sculpted face with a stern expression and green eyes, which Buffy realized were staring right back at her.

Willow was going to ask Buffy to come with her and Tara for coffee when she saw that Buffy's attention was elsewhere. She tracked Buffy’s gaze to the dark brooding figure standing by the door, and understood. Buffy would fiercely deny it but she definitely had a ‘type’, and this guy fitted the bill. The three of them were in the middle of the crowd heading for the door and Willow decided to try and drift towards the edge and take Buffy with her. Buffy didn’t notice the subtle manipulation until she found she practically had to go through the security man to get out of the room. “Did you know the professor well?” he asked in a pleasant voice.

Buffy was startled at his directness, she answered anyway, “I was just a student, and she ran a pretty demanding class. But I respected her, so I thought I should be here.” There was also the massive guilt about not saving her; Buffy wasn’t about to bring that up however. She decided on a rapid change of subject. “I haven’t seen you before, “ she stared at his nametag, “Carter, and I’m sure I would have noticed you.”

Carter smiled, which totally banished the earlier sternness, “Oh? And the name is Elias by the way ”

Buffy blushed, “I’m Buffy, Buffy Summers. I meant you don’t look like the usual run of campus cops,” she blurted.

“Well after what happened I think the authorities decided they could use a little more muscle.” Elias explained.

“Well you certainly have that.” Please tell me I didn’t say that out loud. Buffy wished fervently.

Elias didn’t seem to mind, “I’ll take that as a compliment, and I’ll see you around the campus.” It sounded like a promise rather than a hope, and Buffy decided she didn’t mind that.



Willow and Tara were waiting for Buffy when she finally emerged from the building. Willow was impatient to grill her about what had happened, “So what did he say?” she asked eagerly as she fell in step beside Buffy.

Buffy shrugged, “We made small talk, he was nice, I put my foot in mouth, the usual.”

Willow wasn’t going to be put off that easily, “Did you at least get his name?”

“Yes I managed that. It’s Carter, Elias Carter,” she reached out and grabbed Willow’s arm to stop her falling on her face as she stumbled.

“Darned pavement.” Willow explained weakly. Buffy noted the pavement was perfectly smooth concrete but she didn’t pursue it.

Elias, it had just come totally out of left field. Willow had only seen him in one brief future flash, and all she had seen was the back of some guy dancing with Buffy and the sudden knowledge that his name was Elias. Willow had been become ever more cautious about her little glimpses of tomorrow since that very same vision had led her to trust Anya when they met, and that had unleashed her vampire mirror image on Sunnydale. There was no way she was even going to hint to Buffy about her potential new boyfriend.



Willow was spared from having to come up with any more lame excuses as the shadow of a cloud passed over them. The day had been totally clear just a few minutes earlier and saw several patches of cloud, which were all coming together from different directions, some of them moving right into the wind. Willow glanced to Tara and saw that she was also watching the clouds flowing together and beginning to swirl like a miniature hurricane. They quickly turned from a fluffy white to an ominous black and fat drops of rain began to fall on the concrete, all within a radius of a couple of hundred yards. The trio ran for cover under a tree and watched as the drops became a torrential downpour, soaking one little corner of the campus and scattering confused students in all directions.

“Either we have an outbreak of mad cloud disease or some big fat magic, right?” Buffy asked.

Willow shivered as droplet of water slid down her neck, and looked to Tara whose long hair was drenched with water. It was definitely magic, and they both had the strong sense that this wasn’t just any old magic; it was witchcraft



3. “Stonewalled”



Tara was stood in a corner of Giles’ lounge running a towel through her hair. Giles had looked very pained when she had moved towards the books laid out on the table. Now she was staying well away until she could make sure not one drop of water would land on his precious volumes. Willow scooped up one of the books and held it up for Tara to see, “How about this one baby?”

Tara peered at the volume, “That looks possible,” she couldn’t be more definite without being closer.

“Would you be please be careful with that Willow.” Giles pleaded.

“I wouldn’t have to be if you owned a hairdryer.” Willow grumbled.

“Well I’m sorry, perhaps I should also keep a supply of hairspray and lip gloss?” he offered sarcastically.

“Works for me.” Buffy replied.

Giles harrumphed, “Perhaps we should concentrate on what you have actually found Willow. How complex is the spell?”

“It’s not so much a spell, more of a ritual. It’s sort of interesting.” Willow commented, and then saw the look she was getting from Giles, “Hey I have an alibi, remember?”

“I wasn’t implying anything.” Giles said defensively.

“Good. Besides this ritual would need a half a dozen people to do it.” Willow pointed out.

“Well that pretty much narrows down the suspect list.” Buffy suggested. Willow looked puzzled, so Buffy expanded on her thought, “Well you’re looking for half a dozen Wicca, and I know one place on campus where you could find them.”

Willow and Tara both gave Buffy a look of horror, “Buffy you can’t be serious.” Willow insisted.

“What? They’re Wicca, maybe not very good ones…”

Willow cut across Buffy’s comment, “Not very good? They are so far from good,” she stopped, trying to find some way to convey her disdain for the universities Wicca group.

“They are as authentic as a kosher ham sandwich.” Tara suggested, flushing as the others stared at her, “It seemed like a good comparison,” she mumbled.

Willow smiled and nodded, “I liked it honey,” She turned to Buffy, “It’s like if you went to church and the priest got up and said he wasn’t big on the whole god thing, how would you feel?”

Buffy wasn’t especially religious, but she had an answer, “Well even if the priest is just going through the motions maybe someone in the congregation is taking the message more seriously.” That left Willow stumped for a response; which meant she was actually going to have to go back to the Wicca group.



The sky above the campus was once again a perfect blue. Willow’s mood in contrast was pitch black. “Come on Will we do need to check out the Wicca group.” Tara pointed out, trying to get her to be reasonable.

“I know, I know, it’s just I don’t need to hear about another bake sale. Willow grumbled.

Tara fixed her gaze on Willow, “Are you mad because you think this is a waste of time or because you think they might have done this spell without you?”

Willow wanted to be mad about the suggestion, as usual however Tara saw right through her. “Ok, maybe. I mean we’ve been working on our magic for years and they just laughed at us. Now if they’ve suddenly decided it would be cool it would be, it would be so unfair.”

Tara smiled at the way Willow made this sound like a great injustice. Tara was more concerned about what kind of trouble a bunch of amateurs like the Wicca group could get themselves into. In Sunnydale magic was a magnet for trouble.

“Excuse me, could you ladies point me the Laughlin building?” The voice broke Tara’s train of thought. The source was a fifty something man who bore a striking resemblance to old photos of Albert Einstein, except that Tara didn’t recall any pictures of Einstein in Raybans.

Tara pointed behind them, “That’s the Laughlin building there.”

The man smiled, “Thank you, and are either of you taking Psychology 101?”

“I am.” Willow affirmed.

“Well I shall see you in class, I’m Professor Brown, I’ll be standing in for Professor Walsh for the rest of the semester,” he explained before walking on. Willow was distracted from her concerns about the Wicca temporarily; there was something about the Professors accent that caught her attention. After a moment she realized he didn’t have one. His voice was clear, crisp, and utterly anonymous.

“We’re going to be late for the meeting.” Tara pointed out, and Willow reluctantly turned her thoughts back to her real problem.



The Wicca group had a small study room they had booked for two afternoons a week so they could meet. Once upon a time they had only bothered with one meeting a week. The growing interest in Wicca had led them to expand to make sure everyone had a chance to come. Willow personally didn’t see that growth as a sign of great success, most of the so called sisters were just getting into the current big thing; they could just as easily have gotten into crystal healing or crochet, if that ever became cool. “Willow, Tara! Long time no see.” Denise pounced on them the moment they walked through the door and Willow knew that world was out to get her; Denise was the one person she had hoped wouldn’t be here. Willow had only attended one Wicca meeting on her own and Denise had cornered her afterwards and invited Willow back to her dorm room, and she made it clear she didn’t want to compare study notes. The offer had deeply annoyed Willow. For one thing it seemed to assume that Willow was utterly promiscuous and her relationship with Tara wasn’t anything important. For another Willow felt that Denise had ‘kissing another girl’ down on some sort of personal to do list and she just saw Willow as a convenient way of ticking it off and going on to the next one. It had been the last meeting Willow had gone to.

“Denise, hi. Yeah well we’ve been very busy, haven’t we?” Willow looked to Tara for back up.

“Oh yes it’s been hectic twenty four seven.” Tara agreed.

Denise just smiled and nodded, “Well I’m glad you found the time to come back, I think you’ll be surprised at the changes.”

Willow looked around the room and saw what Denise was talking about. The room had acquired a selection of the magical paraphernalia that Willow was thoroughly familiar with but the group had eschewed previously. Something big had changed in the group, and it was beginning to look like it really could be involved with the weather spell. It still didn’t make sense, what could have changed the group’s attitudes so radically?

The door opened behind Willow and Tara squeezed her arm, hard. Willow turned and was staring straight at Amy Madison.



The stage that had been set up at one end of the pit that dominated the center of the Initiative complex was nothing more than some supply boxes lashed together and covered with a tarpaulin. The facility wasn’t really set up for people to give speeches; it had been focused on getting the job done with the minimum of fuss. Now the entire military arm of the Initiative was gathered together and only the discipline instilled by their training kept them from shuffling and squirming as Elias Carter climbed onto the stage and simply looked them over. His face was kept carefully neutral and when he started to speak his voice was loud but the tone was even. “To kill off the rumours that have been flying around here agent Finn has been transferred to another command. I will be taking permanent command of field operations, so you better get used to this. Now I’ve reviewed your performance, and I’ve seen the increased capture rate for HST’s which I’m sure you are very proud of.” Carter paused, and he could see the foreboding on the faces of the more imaginative soldiers. “Gentlemen I see your so called success as proof that this town is being overrun by these monsters, and that is going to stop. The scientific program will continue under Professor Brown, but from here on in live capture will be regarded as a bonus, we are going to take this town back!”



Sitting through the Wicca groups meeting had been an incredible strain on Tara. Not only was Willow clearly unhappy, the presence of Amy Madison was putting Tara on edge as well. There weren’t many people Tara genuinely disliked, she was a tolerant and forgiving person, that short list was however topped by Amy Madison. In Tara’s eyes Amy was no Wicca, she was just a user, bending people’s minds for her own gain. She had almost gotten Willow and Tara killed by the werewolf guy, whose name she couldn’t recall, by using a badly constructed mind control spell on him.

As soon as the group broke up Willow moved to grab Amy, who didn’t seem in any hurry to get away. Willow cornered her in the corridor, “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Going to college, what do you think?” Amy answered sharply.

“You know what I’m talking about, what are you doing in the Wicca group?” Willow pressed.

“You mean because you and your big bad Slayer buddy warned me to stay away from the magic? Well guess what? You don’t run my life.”

“So you’ve decided to drag all these people down with you.” Willow was angry but she was needling Amy deliberately.

“Your just jealous, you couldn’t get the group interested in magic and I could.” Amy sneered, and then realized she made a mistake as a smile spread across Willow’s face, “Look you just go on with your life and I’ll go on with mine. It’s a big campus and we don’t ever have to see one another,” she stormed off down the corridor.

Denise was standing next to Tara watching the fiery exchange. “Wow, those two have real issues huh?” Denise offered. Tara couldn’t think of any suitable response. Denise was more than capable of carrying on the conversation on her own. “You know even if those two don’t get on that’s no reason to leave you out, I mean you were into the witchcraft before any of us.”

Now Tara had something to say, “Leave us out of what?”

Denise leaned close and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “The coven.”

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

4. “Rock And A Hard Place”



Willow knew that Buffy had been planning to go on patrol alone. She had a lot of issues to work through, and Buffy usually worked through them by working through a few vampires. Willow was tempted again to nudge her towards Elias; after all there were others ways to relieve frustration. She looked at Tara who was nervously scanning the graveyard, Willow took her hand and Tara smiled and relaxed a little. “So this Denise spilled the beans about what Amy is doing?” Buffy asked.

        “Oh yes, she was very friendly.” Tara agreed, and winced a little as Willow squeezed her hand harder.

        “Didn’t we tell her to get out of town?” Buffy wondered.

        “Yeah, but it seems she decided that the statute of limitations had run out on that. So she came back here to go to college.” Willow explained.

        “Great, and now she’s found a bunch of like minded whackos to work magic with,” Buffy paused, “Sorry.”

        “It’s ok Buffy I don’t think they should be playing with magic either.” Tara reassured her.

        “I think they are just misdirected, they need someone to point them the right way.” Willow suggested, and saw the frown that crossed Tara’s face. “Anyway Denise told us where the coven was meeting, we were going to check it out and see exactly what they have been up to. We’ll meet up with you at the Bronze later, ok?”

        Buffy stifled a sigh of relief, “No problem you can give me the full scoop and we can figure out if this is something else we need to worry about.”



        Before the mayoral initiative that had led to the construction of UC Sunnydale the land had been a private ranch belonging to a family that had been there since before Sunnydale was created. Somewhere along the line the money had gone and the ranch had been swallowed up by debt and taxes. Willow suspected that Mayor Wilkins had manipulated that situation, all part of his plan to create a feeding ground for the demons he had conspired with. The campus brought hundreds of extra potential victims to Sunnydale each year and had probably been down as the second course on the Mayor’s banquet after his Ascension.

Not every part of the original land had been redeveloped. The family had built a small private chapel in a quiet corner of their property and despite the fact that it had fallen into disuse it had never been demolished; some local historical society had claimed it was a landmark and had managed to block every attempt to have it demolished, without ever raising the support to have it restored and preserved properly. Naturally a place with a roof and no prying eyes had attracted the attention of plenty of students over the years, and as hallowed ground it was a perfect spot for the coven to gather.

        Willow looked around the innards if the chapel; it had been cleaned up and a number of candles were placed around it. There were traces of magical symbols painted on the floor that had been washed away, and there was a lingering scent of herbs in the air. Willow got a good vibe from the place. “Well it looks like they are sticking to white magic.” Willow pointed out positively.

        “Hmmm.” Was Tara’s only response.

        “Look Tara I was thinking, maybe we should actually think about joining the coven.” Willow blurted it out.

        I knew it. Tara had seen this coming since Willow had heard the word ‘coven’ mentioned. “Baby I really don’t think that’s such a hot idea.”

Willow wasn’t going to be put off, “I know that it’s Amy’s creation, but we know way more magic than she does we could…”

        “Take it over and make it ours?” Tara was looking askance at Willow as she made the suggestion.

Willow made a sour face, “No, I just mean we could show them the proper way to do things.”

        “Honey we could, I just don’t think we should.” Tara countered.

        “Now you’re losing me.” Willow sounded confused.

        “Willow the girls in the group thought witchcraft was a joke. Now Amy’s persuaded them with a few cool tricks I still don’t think they take it seriously. You have to respect the magic, if you don’t it can be; bad.” Tara couldn’t think of anyway to express just how bad.

        Willow could understand the logic of the argument, still…”Maybe we should stake them out, see what they’re up to and then decide what to do.”

        Tara hesitated, clearly Willow wasn’t going to let this go easily, “Ok we’ll check them out and then we’ll decide what to do.”

        “Right, once we have all the facts we can make a decision.” Willow was hoping that if it didn’t turn out to be as bad as Tara thought then she could talk her girlfriend round; a chance like this to actually be part of a coven wasn’t to be thrown away lightly.



        Much as she loved Willow and Tara Buffy was glad to go off on her own; all that ‘coupleiness’ was getting to be a downer. It wasn’t their fault but the comparison with her own love life was just too depressing. Angel had gone away to LA; Parker was a bastard, and Riley Finn… Buffy hadn’t even realized she was interested until he pulled his disappearing act. She wondered if this was some new level of rejection she had achieved, men leaving her before she even dated them.

        Three short, sharp, cracks grabbed Buffy’s attention. It wasn’t part of her usual Sunnydale scene and it wasn’t until it was repeated that it registered it was gunfire, followed by a sound like rocks tumbling over one another that Buffy figured had to be some sort of roar, she turned and sprinted towards the sound. The sound had originated somewhere in the woods that bordered the cemetery she had been checking out. Fighting her way through the undergrowth in the dark without winding up sprawled on the ground was a serious challenge and it took Buffy a couple of minutes to reach the source of all the noise, and it had gone disturbingly quiet before she stumbled into the clearing.

        It was pretty obvious why the gunfire had stopped, there were half dozen men wearing uniforms and night vision gear strewn around the opening in the trees. Buffy had seen them on the campus and assumed they were dressed up for Halloween, but the weapons they were carrying weren’t water pistols, and from the way a couple them were lying they weren’t playing dead. Whoever they were they were playing for keeps, and losing. “ Oscar one status check, Oscar one report, over.” The voice startled Buffy and then she spotted the radios strapped to the hip of one of the commando guys.

        She picked it up and thumbed the ‘talk’ button, “Oscar one is a little busy being unconscious right now, I thin you had better come and find him.”

        “ Who the hell is this? Identify yourself!” The voice demanded. Buff found two small rocks and pinned the radio between them with the talk button pressed down, she just hoped whoever the shouting guy was he could actually track the radio down. Buffy knew she should get out of the clearing but she wanted to get some clue as to who these people were. Pulling off their masks Buffy had a vague sense of familiarity, which finally crystallized as she remembered the name of one of them, Forrest, a buddy of Riley Finn and one of the frat boys from Lowell house. Buffy had a hard time believing this was some sort of initiation gag, she wasn’t about to hang around for their buddies to show up and she could see a line of beat up trees marking out the trail of whatever had done this. Buffy decided that right now it was more important to trace the whatever than watch over a bunch of boneheaded frat boys.



        The trail wasn’t exactly a straight line. Whatever she was tracking seemed to be zigzagging, either it had a terrible sense of direction or it had no idea of where it was going. Buffy was getting tired of trying to track the thing and nearly breaking her ankles tripping over roots and animal burrows. She was thinking of taking a rest on a large rock when the rock turned towards her. The thing looked like a large badly carved statue, all angles and edges instead of a smoothly carved surface and there were empty pits where the eyes should have gone. Buffy began to back up, the creature moved with her, “Right, not going to be that easy,” she muttered.

A torn off branch was lying on the ground and Buffy snatched it up and spun round to smash into the back of the creatures knees. The branch snapped and pain shot through Buffy’s arms; otherwise the attack had no impact. The demon swung an arm round and caught Buffy in the chest sending her flying through the air. Her body slammed into the ground and the shock left Buffy immobilized and she knew she was about to be stomped. A ball of light whizzed over her head and smacked into what passed for a chest on the demon. It let out one of its avalanche roars and staggered back. Apparently having had enough of being attacked for one night it turned and stomped off into the dark.

        Buffy tried to struggle upwards but didn’t get much further than resting on her elbows before Willow and Tara were at her side. “Are you Ok?” Willow asked anxiously.

“Nothing that a body transplant wouldn’t fix.” Buffy groaned, “I thought we were going to meet at the Bronze?”

Willow shrugged, “It was early, so we thought we should come back and see how you were doing.”

Buffy took Willow and Tara’s hands and let them pull her to her feet, “Thanks.”

“Do you want to go after it?” Tara asked dubiously.

Buffy shook her head, “Not without some heavier weapons, a wrecking ball would be nice.”

“The spell just bounced off as well, I think it just got fed up and left.” Tara pointed out.

“Yeah, I think it had a good idea, I think it’s time to retreat to a hot bath and a couple of aspirin.”



5. “Stony Ground”



Giles missed his library; not only for all those shelves filled with books that he had cherished and protected but also for the fact that without it his living room had become the sole focus for the activities of Buffy and all her friends, acquaintances, and enemies. And none of the aforementioned was inclined to actually knock before they came in. “Hi Giles.” Willow announced as she marched in.

        “Good morning Mr. Giles.” Tara added.

        “Hey.” Buffy offered as she limped through the door.

        That sight dispelled any annoyance Giles might have felt at the trio barging in, “Buffy what on earth happened?” he rushed to guide her into a comfortable chair.

        “I’m ok, you should see the other guy.” Buffy joked. Unconvincingly.

        Giles frowned, “Who exactly was ‘this guy’?”

        Willow stretched a hand above her head, “About so tall, looked like he had been carved out of a chunk of flint.”

        “Felt like it too.” Buffy muttered, “And it wasn’t alone, ran into a bunch of commando guys who were armed to the teeth, stone face had pretty much gone straight through them.”

        “Some sort of vigilante or militia group?” Giles speculated.

        Buffy shook her head, “Their uniforms were too; uniform. And they had what looked like top of the line equipment,” she didn’t mention the fact that she recognized some of them; she wasn’t going to share that until she figured out what it meant.

        “We also found the place where the coven has been meeting.” Tara mentioned since she could see Willow wasn’t going to bring it up.

        “So they are actually a functioning coven? They aren’t simply posturing?” Giles asked.

        “No, Amy definitely seems to have got them doing real magic.” Tara was resolute, and wanted to make sure that everyone remembered that Amy was the one behind the coven.

        “Hmmm the girl seems determined to follow her mothers path despite our efforts to warn her off.” Giles commented.

        “Exactly, and she’s trying to take a bunch of people with her.” Tara could see the surprise on the others faces, she rarely sounded angry. She just needed to try and get across how serious this really was.

        “The coven just seems to be interested in white magic, I don’t think they’re interested in doing anything bad.” Willow interjected.

        Giles looked at the pair intently. Usually Willow and Tara were completely in step; to the point where even such a small disagreement was unsettling.

        Buffy turned in her chair, “Guys I know this coven is a big deal with you, but I think the walking mountain should come top of our list. I mean magic, bullets, they all bounced off this thing. I think we need to hit the books.”

Tara saw Willow nodding in agreement, “We did say we were going to check out what the coven are actually doing.” Tara reminded her.

“Well we don’t know when they’re holding their next get together, we could snoop around at the next Wicca meeting.” Willow suggested.

“Actually the coven is meeting tonight, for something big.” Tara laid her trump card and smiled at the astonishment on Willow face.

“How did you find that out?” Willow sounded somewhat dazed.

“I called Denise and she told me.” Tara explained.

“You called Denise?” Now Willow’s tone was frosty.

“She gave me her dorm number so we could keep in touch.” Tara explained, not quite seeing why this was so important.

“Wasn’t that nice of her.” Willow practically growled in reply, and pretty much put an end to the conversation.



The regenerative powers that went with being the Slayer meant that by lunchtime Buffy was feeling pretty good again, physically at least. She was still disturbed by the sight of her fellow students being part of some sort of government monster squad, and being housemates of Riley Finn. He had seemed like such a genuine open guy, how could he be connected with something like this? However could these people really be running around Lowell house without him knowing anything? And why had he dropped out right after Maggie Walsh’s death? She wanted to know the answers to those questions before she shared what she knew with her friends.

As she approached Lowell house Buffy spotted one of the frat boys standing outside with his arm in a sling, he was one of the commandos she had unmasked the previous night; which ruled out any chance that it was mistaken identity. As the boy walked away Buffy saw that he had been talking with Elias Carter. “Hello again.” Buffy called out cheerily as she approached Elias.

“Buffy, hi.” Elias was clearly surprised, but not unhappy about seeing her.

“That guy looked kind of beat up, must have been a heck of a party.” Buffy hoped she was being subtle.

“Well I think it was a lot of alcohol, an argument over whose team was best, and it all just go out of hand.” Elias answered without missing a beat, before Buffy could ask any more questions he put one of his own, “What brings you here?”

“I wanted to see how Riley was, Riley Finn.” Buffy’s explanation was only half a lie.

“Finn? You know Finn?” Elias’ response was harsher than he intended.

“Not that well, but he was Professor Walsh’s TA and he was nice so I wanted to see how he was doing.” Buffy was surprised at the vehemence of Elias’ response, but found she wanted to explain.

“Oh right, of course. Sorry bad day.” Elias floundered as he tried to backtrack, “Anyway sorry to have to tell you but he’s left. Apparently after the death of the Professor he didn’t want to stay here.”

Buffy just stared for a moment, “Oh, makes sense I guess, “ her tone was disappointed and she turned and walked away without another word. She didn’t wonder how come Elias knew so much about Riley and where he had gone.

Elias berated himself; he should have kept things casual, answered Buffy's questions and sent her on her way. Instead the moment she mentioned Finn's name he had been annoyed and off his guard. Elias was honest enough with himself to admit that he had been jealous. That didn’t make much sense, yes she was pretty but there were plenty of other cute co-eds around the campus, and several who had made it clear that they were available. And yet there was something about Buffy Summers that drew him. Elias tried to figure out exactly what it was; there was something in the way she moved, and in the look she had given him. Her eyes, it finally clicked into place. Buffy smiled and played nice but there was something in her eyes that said this was someone who had been places and seen things, and not good things either. And that didn’t fit in with the whole cute co-ed thing. “Carter?” Elias turned to be confronted by another of the commandos in civilian gear.

“We aren’t due to debrief for a couple of hours.” Elias reminded him.

“I know that, but that girl you were talking to; I wouldn’t swear to it but she sounded like the one on the radio last night.” The soldier waited nervously for a response.

Elias considered this, “You couldn’t swear to it?”

“No, it just sounded similar.” The commando confirmed.

“Alright I’ll take it under advisement, we’ll cover the rest formally later.” The commando took the hint and walked away. Elias turned the information over in his mind, Buffy Summers would warrant some very close attention and soon.



Tara could see Willow was still annoyed form the vicious way she was folding up clothing and shoving it into a drawer. Things had been a little out of synch for the past day or so and she supposed that Willow was venting a little steam, still she didn’t want to see another innocent sweatshirt maimed, “Honey I’m really sorry; I didn’t think anything of it, I thought Denise just wanted us to join the coven.”

Willow looked to Tara and knew that she meant exactly what she said. As hard as it was to believe Tara still couldn’t see what Willow saw every time she looked at her. The way that shy girl from Quincy had blossomed into such a beautiful desirable woman. Part of what made Tara so special was of course the very way that she didn’t see that. “I know you didn’t baby, I just wish you had told me about it sooner.” Willow explained soothingly.

“I was going to, but we were in such a hurry to get over to Giles.”

Willow nodded, “You know we could just go over to the coven meeting and introduce ourselves.”

Tara frowned, “Well we could but that would probably mean an argument with Amy again, and she might just call off the whole thing. Or she might decide to be on her best behaviour. Either way we won’t get to see what they are really up to.”

Willow still wasn’t happy with the way Tara made the coven sound so sinister; she really couldn’t believe that people whose wildest idea was a bake sale would throw themselves into some dark demonic ritual. Still she didn’t want to argue about it. “Ok so we so we keep out of sight and we see what happens, but if it turns out to be of the good can we at least talk about joining?”

“We can talk about it.” Tara conceded.

Using the ‘cloaking’ glamour always made Tara uneasy, not so much because of the magic as Willow’s habit of using it to get as close to the target as possible; sooner or later someone was going to try and walk right through one of them and Tara was pretty sure the spell couldn’t cope with that. She had persuaded Willow that they should shelter under a tree some twenty feet from the chapel. They could see everything without taking any risk of being discovered.

The coven appeared to consist of seven girls including Amy, who was clearly the leader of the group. Willow knew that was one strike against the coven to start with, and they were bringing an awful lot of paraphernalia for one little meeting. A sheet was spread in the middle of the chapel and Willow caught a glimpse of runic symbols before it was laid down. The coven was clearly planning something, something big. Willow could tell from the way that Tara was squeezing her hand she was very unhappy with this and Willow’s chances of talking Tara round were slipping away. The coven took up positions around the cloth holding candles and chanting. Amy was holding a bell that she rang at certain points in the chant. A ball of pure white light rose up from the floor and hovered in the midst of the group. Willow thought it looked quite lovely, and then there was brilliant flash that blinded everyone for a few seconds.

As Willow’s eyes recovered she saw the light was now a vivid scarlet and what appeared to be gas or dust was pouring out of it and forming a swirling cloud in the roof of the chapel, little lightning flashes emerged from the dust, whatever it was it was very pissed off.



6. “Hard faced”



The coven scattered screaming and crying as the cloud of dust swirled over their heads, flickering with angry red flashes. Amy was frozen against a wall of the chapel, trapped behind the point of light that was pulsing and wavering. Suddenly Amy made a gesture with her hands and the light guttered and died. The cloud was unaffected however and flowed out of the chapel in apparent pursuit of the coven. From their place of concealment Willow and Tara saw the cloud spread out but not dissipate. Willow let the concealment spell collapse and dashed out to confront the, whatever it was. Tara followed close behind. “Any good spells for driving away clouds?” Willow asked.

        “Not really.” Tara admitted.

        Willow sighed, “So I guess we go with what we know.” Willow grasped Tara’s hand and then raised her free hand towards the angry looking cloud, letting a bolt of lightning loose. The bolt went straight through the cloud without seeming to do any damage. It had an effect though; the cloud drew itself into a tight swirling mass and shot away from the chapel and vanished into the night.

        “I guess we had an easy one coming.” Willow commented. Tara nodded but kept scanning the sky; that cloud had looked mean, for a cloud anyway, and she wouldn’t have surprised if it just dropped straight down on top of them.

        The real problem was at ground level, “Where the hell did you come from?” Amy practically screamed at them.

        “We just saved your butt you know, a thank you would be nice.” Willow snapped back.

        “Thank you, now what the hell are you doing here?” Amy persisted.

        “We wanted to what you were doing here.” Tara admitted.

        Amy looked disgusted; “We were trying to summon a guardian spirit, something to create peace and safety over the campus. Instead we got that thing.”

        Tara looked horrified, “A guardian spirit? That’s way to dangerous for amateurs to try.”

        Amy got angrier, “We are not amateurs, and I had everything just right for the spell, “she stopped and gave Willow and Tara a hard look,” Were you using a spell to snoop on us? Or a glamour to hide from us?”

        “We wanted to see what you were doing without you hiding anything from us.” Willow conceded reluctantly.

        If Amy had been angry now she was incandescent, “You morons ruined the spell, you distorted the flow of the magic with that glamour, which you stole from me in the first place!”

        Willow was equally indignant, “We did not ‘distort the flow of energy’, you’re just making that up, Right baby?” she glanced at Tara and the anger drained out of her face as she saw Tara frowning, “It is nonsense right baby?”

        Tara hesitated, “I don’t think it’s very likely,” she answered.

        Amy looked triumphant, “I guess that’s as close to an admission of guilt I’m going to get out of you two. Now I have to go and find my sisters and explain this wasn’t their fault,” she stalked off leaving Willow and Tara looking at each other miserably.



        Willow had to stare at her breakfast to remind herself exactly what she was eating. The act of tasting and chewing wasn’t providing much information. All her senses were dulled after the previous night. After the encounter with the ‘dust devil’ she and Tara had tried to come up with some scheme to make things right, with each other as much as anything else. The problem was that they couldn’t even agree where to start. Willow disliked this sense of being out of step, but she simply couldn’t see anyway of doing it short of just surrendering over the whole coven issue and Willow wasn’t ready to do that just yet.

        Tara had taken her time in the shower, hoping the hot water would wash away the tension she felt; it hadn’t worked. The encounter with the coven last night had come close to fulfilling her worst expectations. The spell they had been trying was far too powerful far anyone but the most experienced witches, and then only in extreme circumstances. It should have been the end of the matter, proof that she had been right all along, except that she couldn’t rule out the possibility that using that glamour had interfered with the spell. Magic that complicated could be fragile and had to be done just right. Tara didn’t really believe that was the case; she just couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t just her pride talking.

        As she walked into the refectory Tara spotted Willow sat looking a little forlorn waiting for her. Tara’s heart melted, they couldn’t let this come between them, they had to find a compromise that they could both live with and that would put a smile back on Willow’s face. Tara filled her tray with the first things that came to hand and made her way over to the table, only to find an Amy shaped object getting in the way. “I hope you two had a good night.” Amy asked venomously. She was wearing the same clothes as the previous night and her hair was a mess.

        Willow rose from the table and moved to Tara’s side, “What do you want Amy?”

        “I don’t want anything, but thanks to you a couple of the sisters have dropped out of the coven and I need all the Wicca I can get to stop that demon.” Amy explained belligerently.

        “You’re asking us to help you?” Willow was incredulous.

        “I’m; asking you to help the coven, you’re partly responsible for this so I thought you might actually want to put it right.” Amy pointed out.

        “We did not cause this, you shouldn’t have even tried summoning such a powerful spirit.” Tara wasn’t going to let Amy palm the blame off on to them.

        “So you’re sure you didn’t disrupt the magic now?” Amy asked. Tara hesitated and Amy went on, “That’s what I thought.”

        Willow wasn’t happy with the way this was going, “What is it your planning Amy?”

        “A binding spell,” Amy made it sound blindingly obvious, “I mean you can’t exactly shove a stake through its heart.”

        “How exactly do you plan to do it?” Tara asked cautiously.

        “We get the coven together, we draw the demon to us, and then we bind it to some physical object, and bury it in the deepest hole we can find.” Amy answered.

        Tara’s eyes went wide, “Are you crazy? You want to put those girls back in harms way after what happened last night?””

        “I’m doing what I can to put things right, what about you?” Amy retorted. Tara glanced at Willow, who looked unhappy and confused, and was conspicuously not jumping in to help, “You know suddenly I’m just not hungry.” The tray clattered on to the table as Tara abandoned it.



        In the dorm room Tara started taking slow deep breaths to try and calm herself, she couldn’t remember being so mad. This whole situation was spiraling towards outright disaster and no one else could see it; Willow can’t see it. That was what troubled Tara the most, the sense that Willow wasn’t on her side this time, and that was unnerving beyond words, like someone had just taken out one of her major organs.

        There were was a knock at the door and Willow walked in, “You don’t need to knock to come into your own room.” Tara pointed out, still on edge.

        “I just didn’t want to get in the way of any flying objects.” Willow explained and saw the joke fall flat.

        “Did you get rid of Amy?” Tara asked, hoping that Willow was going to answer with a simple yes.

        “Sort of.” Was Willow’s actual answer.

        “Sort of as in you listened to her plan and agreed to try and talk me into it?” Tara knew this could only end one of two ways, and one of those ways would involve her giving in and going along with the coven; she just couldn’t bring herself to do that, so that only really left one possibility.

        “Tara I know it’s not a great plan, and I don’t much like Amy, but really what choice do we have?” Willow pleaded.

        “We got to Giles, we go to Buffy, we go to our friends and we work on this the way we always do.” Tara stated firmly.

        “This isn’t something Buffy can slay, and this is partly our fault.” Willow countered.

        “I don’t believe that.” Tara pointed out.

        “But there is a chance it’s true, and the coven will try this even if we don’t help.” Willow continued to argue, even though she could see it was a losing battle.

        “Then we should go to them, tell Denise and the others how dangerous this really is.” Tara knew she sounded harsh but this was her last throw of the dice.

        “I think the priority is stopping the demon.” Willow said.

        “Willow I can’t go along with Amy and the coven, you aren’t going to persuade me otherwise.” There just wasn’t any point in dragging this out any further.

        “Ok then. I said I would go help them work on the binding spell, so I guess I’ll see you later.” Willow opened the door and walked out slowly and reluctantly. Tara held back until the door closed, and then the tears ran down her cheeks.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

7. “Tumbling Rocks”



Having sat in the dorm room and cried for half an hour Tara dried her eyes, tidied up and laid out a plan of action. She had decided there were two main things to do. Firstly she had to fill the other Scoobies in on what had happened last night and see if they could offer any help. Buffy, Giles, Anya even. Xander’s girlfriend could be more than a little self-centred but she knew demons. The second part might be even more important if she could manage it; finding proof that it wasn’t their glamour that had wrecked the summoning spell. If Willow had any fault it was that she tended to blame herself for things that were beyond her control; Tara believed that Amy was taking advantage of that guilt to gain Willow’s co-operation. If she could just show Willow that it wasn’t their fault Tara could clear that guilt away and demonstrate that the coven had simply overreached themselves.

        A knock on Buffy’s door got a muffled reply that Tara took to be an invitation. Opening the door Tara wondered if the ‘dust devil’ hadn’t been here before her. The room was littered with books magazines and newspapers. Buffy was perched on the only bare patch on the bed holding two publications and comparing something. “Hey Tara, no Willow?” Buffy asked distantly, not noticing the way Tara flinched at the comment.

        “Uh no, what are you up to Buffy?” Tara decided to avoid explaining things just yet.

        Buffy was equally reluctant to bring Tara in on this, but she decided there really wasn’t any alternative, “When I ran across the stone demon last night I also found a bunch of those commando guys and I recognized some of them, they’re frat boys at Lowell house.”

        Now Tara recognized some of the publications as material about UC Sunnydale and it’s fraternities. “So why didn’t you mention it last night?”

        Buffy sighed, “Because I thought there might be connections to other people we know. Tara I think Riley Finn and Professor Walsh were connected to the commandos.”

        Tara was so stunned that she forgot why she had come here, “How can that be?”

        Buffy pointed to a couple of old campus newspapers, “Lowell house was shut down for ‘renovation’ a couple of years ago. When it reopened everyone who moved in was a new arrival at the campus, and the Professor and Riley arrived at the same time. The Professor really was a big wheel according to all the books, but she decided to come here and teach psych 101? I don’t buy it. Something big is going on and I’m going to find out what before they get in over their heads and cause some real damage.”

        That reminded Tara of her plan, however she didn’t see much prospect of distracting Buffy from her investigation; besides she clearly had enough to worry about right now. “Well I hope you find your answers; I’d help but I have stuff to do, you know?”

        Buffy nodded, “No problem, I’ll give the two of you a call if I need a hand.” Tara smiled and nodded in return; she just hoped that Buffy didn’t need that help any time soon.



        Professor Brown was watching the commandos breaking out and assembling their new equipment, “You cannot be seriously planning to use those things,” he said, although the grim expression on Elias’ face told him otherwise.

        Elias picked up one of the rocket launchers, “I am thoroughly serious doctor; my first priority is protecting my men and the civilian population, you can have whatever pieces are left over to study.”

        “Agent Carter I have no desire to follow in the footsteps of Professor Walsh, but you cannot simply ignore the scientific program. These creatures could be invaluable to development of new military technology.” Not Walsh’s bizarre Frankenstein fixation, Brown added to himself. He had been amazed to discover the nature of project 314, how the committee could have chosen that over his own program in the first place was beyond him. The only positive thing to come out of Walsh’s demise was that it had put an end to a vast waste of resources.

        “Look Doctor you can extract DNA from the remains, assuming this thing has any DNA.” Elias pointed out.

Brown was dismissive, “It’s simply an animal; of course it has DNA.”

        “Right, just an animal.” Elias muttered as he checked the targeting system on the missile launcher.



        Thinking back on the encounter in the dorm room Willow was ever more certain that Tara had been fighting back tears. She felt incredibly low about turning and walking out; however as unpalatable as it was Amy’s plan made sense and the coven could use all the experienced help it could get. She just wished she could have gotten Tara to see that. It didn’t occur to Willow that she could simply have accepted Tara’s viewpoint; that perhaps Tara had a clearer picture of things than she did. She was resolved to what had to be done, and it took an awful lot to break her out of that mood.

        Willow found Amy waiting in the refectory. They had agreed to meet back there after Willow made her last effort to talk Tara round. Amy didn’t seem surprised or disappointed that Willow appeared alone. Willow knew that Amy saw Tara as a busybody who had stuck her nose in where it didn’t belong. That didn’t exactly endear Amy to Willow; right now though Willow knew that she had to put that aside and work with Amy to make sure the binding spell was done safely and successfully. “You couldn’t talk her round then.” Amy was making a statement not asking a question and Willow didn’t much like the way Amy had said her, though that might be her own guilt talking.

        “Tara has very strong feelings about this, we just have to respect them.” Willow explained.

        Amy shrugged, “Whatever, I mean I don’t want seem callous but we have a bigger problem to worry about.” The last part was a hasty retraction as Amy spotted the annoyance her disinterest had generated.

        “Yeah I suppose we do.” Willow conceded.

        “I can show what I’ve come up with so far, it’s all in my dorm room.” Amy suggested.

        “Ok let’s see what you’ve got.” Willow offered sadly.

        As they made their way towards Amy’s dorm room Willow felt increasingly uneasy and couldn’t shake the sense that she was cheating on Tara. It was ridiculous, Amy was straight and probably the last woman on earth Willow would want to sleep with and still it seemed like she was being unfaithful. She hadn’t really appreciated just how much of an intimate thing magic had become for them; yes other people hade been on the receiving end of their spells but creating magic, that was something she and Tara had done together.

        Amy’s dorm room was a double with the identical layout to Willow and Tara’s except that the beds remained as two singles. Amy’s side of the room was marked out by several candles and a stack of half a dozen magic books on top of a dresser. The other side of the room looked like no one had used it for a while, “My room mate has a boyfriend off campus and he has an apartment; she turns up once in a while for a change of clothes or to pick up her mail.” Amy explained. Willow looked at the pile of magic books, all but one of them were modern reprints of old texts, which usually meant all kind of interpretation and editing had crept in. Amy only had one volume that Giles would have approved of, though Willow was sure he wouldn’t like the way Amy had all the others piled on top of it.

        “I think I’ve pretty much got this binding spell down, but see what you think,” she offered Willow a notepad on which she had laid out the details of the binding spell.

        Willow was impressed despite herself, “This is pretty good, I don’t think I can improve on it.”

        Amy smiled, “Well I had a lot of motivation.”

        “I know what you mean. Do you have these crystals you’ve listed? Those could be tricky to get in a hurry.” Willow pointed out.

        “I have them, or at least I know where they are. We were using them in the spell last night, didn’t get a chance to grab them or any of the other stuff.” Amy explained.

        Willow was concerned. “We probably should go and get them, before somebody else wanders in to the chapel and takes them.”



        Fortunately the chapel hadn’t been disturbed since the night before. The bell was sat on the remains of the altar where Amy had left it. Several of the candles were scattered on the floor; coven members who probably didn’t even realize they were still holding them had carried the others off. The white sheet that the magical symbols had been painted on had fared worst; crumpled and dirty with footprints all over it. The crystals had been set at the four corners of the sheet, each on top of a magical emblem. The crystals were like small versions of the dolls head crystal Tara’s grandmother had given her before she left Quincy. Willow felt her heartache again. This is just no good. Willow decided, she would help the coven with the binding spell but then she would walk away, even if they were the best coven on earth they weren’t worth the pain they were causing her and Tara.

        The chapel suddenly became gloomy, like a cloud had covered the sun; Willow instantly knew what it had to be. Amy clearly had the same thought, “Let’s get outside!”

        As they emerged into the daylight Willow saw the dust cloud. In the sunlight it was clear that it was swirling mass of grey-black dust with flickers of light coursing through it. It was formless but Willow couldn’t help feeling that it was mad about something. “Take my hand” Amy shouted, “We have to combine our strength!” reluctantly Willow placed her hand in Amy’s; and almost snatched it away again. The flow of energy was like nails being dragged down a blackboard compared to the synergistic flow she had experienced with Tara. Amy ignored her squeamishness and began to make a series of cutting gestures with her free hand. As the dust devil began to bear down on them there were small flashes on it’s surface; individual grains of dust burning up. The closer it came the more rapidly the flashes appeared until one side of the thing was lit up. The demon got within a few feet before it decided that enough was enough and flew off in the opposite direction disappearing with surprising speed.



8. “Sandcastles”



Amy looked distinctly unimpressed as she saw that Willow was shaking, she had expected Willow to be used to this sort of thing, "Are you ok?"

        "Fine, fine." Willow reassured her, "Just glad you came up with that spell."

        "It just came to me." Amy tried to sound modest; she didn't really succeed.

        Willow simply nodded, Amy's answer simply confirmed what Willow had felt when they had linked. Amy had launched that spell without hesitation, without thinking. Amy had that spell to hand, which was way too lucky. That had crystallized something that had running around the back of Willow’s mind since back at the dorm room. Amy had come up with the binding spell in one night from half a dozen crappy magic books? It was beyond lucky, even with all of Giles books and the help of all the Scoobies Willow knew it would be near impossible. Willow was shaking, from the effort of containing her rage and her desire to fry Amy Madison on the spot. She had made Willow feel guilty, got her mixed up in whatever scheme she was planning, and worst of all had caused Willow to fall out with Tara. Willow was going to find out what Amy’s plan was and then she was going to make Amy very, very, sorry.



        Giles was peeved, spending an afternoon with Xander and Anya was inclined to provoke that reaction but on this occasion it was mostly the sense that his efforts were absolutely futile. He had called Buffy to find out when she might be coming over to see what they discovered and perhaps contributing towards it and she had barely paid enough attention to make a decent excuse. He hadn’t even gotten that far with Willow and Tara, his messages hadn’t elicited a response so far. As if in response to his thought the front door opened and Tara walked in. “Good, help, now can we go to the mall?” Anya asked looking at Xander.

        “Tara, I’m glad you got my message, or one of them anyway.” Giles commented.

        “Messages? Sorry Mr. Giles I haven’t been back to the dorm room I just came here because I needed your help with something.” Tara explained. She had forgotten that the gang was searching for information about the rock demon, of course so had Buffy. Tara was beginning to wonder if she had any chance of putting things right with Willow; no one seemed to have any time to help. She let her gaze fall on the books that the others had been working on, and then snatched one up and stared at the illustration that occupied the center of the page.

        “Please be careful Tara, it took us quite sometime to track down the Etappa demon.” Giles cautioned her.

        The illustration was of a swirling of vapour or dust that looked strangely familiar, “What’s this got to do with Buffy’s stone demon?” Tara demanded.

        Giles was surprised at her manner, “Well those of us who were here earlier are aware that the Etappa demon has several different forms. The dust cloud shown in that illustration; which has a great deal of magical energy but a very limited ability to interact with the world. It can use its energy to assume a physical form that consumes much of its power. In it’s most dangerous form it possesses a human being and thus has form while retaining its magical energies.” Giles knew he was lecturing, but if the girl wanted to know these things she should have joined in the research effort.

        Tara responded but putting the book down and sweeping out of the apartment muttering something under her breath. Giles stared at the closed door; he hadn’t realized that Tara even knew such language let alone used it.



        It had taken a couple of circuits of the campus for Tara to calm down enough to think clearly about what she was going to do. Striking Amy with a lightning bolt was out of the question; as enjoyable as it might be. As her temper cooled Tara realized that the smart thing to do was to go back to the dorm room and hope Willow came back soon. As Tara opened the door she was confronted by a mass of green and red waving in her face. ”Roses, I figured they were sort of traditional.” Willow explained as she pulled the bouquet back so Tara could actually see her.

        Tara took the bunch of flowers from Willow, “You didn’t have to do this you know,” she suggested, not able to keep the pleasure out of her voice.

        “Oh I really did.” Willow replied as she dropped onto the bed. “Baby when I finish explaining what happened if you want to say; ‘I told you so’ then you go right ahead.”

        Willow laid out what had happened at the chapel and in Amy’s dorm room while Tara listened impassively. “I don’t know why she’s doing this, but Amy must have been working on that binding spell for a while before she set up the summoning spell,” she finished.

        “Actually honey I don’t think there was any summoning spell, that thing is called an Etappa demon and it’s the same thing Buffy thought the night before last.” Tara kind of enjoyed the look of utter surprise on Willow’s face as she took her turn to share information. Willow couldn’t match Tara’s air of calm as she took in the information. Amy was plainly evil and insane.

        “So what we saw last night was all just an illusion. She wanted the coven to think they had summoned up the Etappa so she could blackmail them into doing the binding ritual.” Saying it out loud Willow decided to add desperate to Amy’s character description.

        “If the demon just wanted to possess anyone it could have taken over one of the commandos it beat up, I guess it has a grudge against Amy.” Tara suggested.

        Willow nodded, “That I can understand.” She thought about that link with Amy, how alien it had felt, was it more than just the fact she just didn’t like Amy? What if that power she had felt wasn’t Amy’s in the first place?



        As night settled over Sunnydale a jet of dust emerged from an animal burrow and formed into a cloud, which in turn formed into a humanoid outline. The Etappa demon was far from being at top of the social hierarchy amongst demons. In its basic form it was possessed of considerable strength and magic. What it lacked was the intelligence to make that power count, which was what it gained from combining with a human being, then it was a truly dangerous creature. The Etappa didn’t understand very much but it understood that a deal was a deal and that no mere human could be allowed to steal from it. The human had done a good job of hiding, and when it had located her earlier she had been far stronger than it expected. It had retreated to recuperate and gather its strength. In it’s solid form it would be less vulnerable to magic; it would search the human out and make it live up to its bargain.



Elias had spread the commandos out through the woods in ones and twos each armed with an anti-tank missile. He wanted maximum coverage and minimum casualties if anything went wrong, weapons designed to rip through a tank would make a hell of a mess of a patrol. Elias had taken a position close to where the Initiative had fought the creature previously, if the thing had some sort of hunting ground this would be the best place to ambush it. As he sat waiting Elias kept thinking about his father. The man had been determined to instill the fear of god into his children. He had regaled them with warnings about the pits of hell and the devils and demons that awaited them there if they weren’t good. Arriving at the Initiative it had been a serious shock to see the living images of those childhood tales. The techs had a neat explanation of that naturally. The HST’s been around for a long time, they said, so naturally they had been incorporated into humanities myths and legends. Elias knew his father wouldn’t have accepted that; he would have said that the scientists were the one creating the myths so they didn’t have to face reality.

A rustling of leaves caught Elias’ attention, just a little to late as something crashed into Elias and knocked him onto his back. For a moment he thought that the rock thing had jumped him, but he realized if it had struck him like that his bones would be powder. As he moved to get to his feet he was leapt on and pinned to the ground. “Let’s just see who you are,” a familiar voice announced as his balaclava was torn off. “Elias?” Buffy sounded a little surprised.

“Buffy?” It should have been a surprise but Elias realized it wasn’t, he had felt there was something about her, nonetheless he asked the obvious question, “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, a commando guy I mean.” Buffy explained, “How about you?”

“Looking for that.” Elias pointed behind Buffy. She was about to deliver a sarcastic comeback when she heard a branch snap.

Buffy leapt off Elias and spun around to see the stone demon approaching. She took a few steps to intercept it when Elias yelled, “Hit the dirt!”

Buffy dropped and heard a roaring noise and wash of hot air as a missile streaked past her prone form. The missile struck the demon square in the chest and there was a massive fireball as the warhead detonated. Elias expected a rain of debris to head his way and was amazed when the fireball dissipated and the demon was unchanged. That wasn’t strictly true, it was now very angry. It lumbered towards Elias and he let go of the launcher and dropped into a roll as the thing lashed out at him, “No damn way,” he muttered; there was simply no way this thing could take an armour piercing missile and still be walking. As Elias made to draw his sidearm Buffy sprinted in, grabbed the empty launch tube and began to pound on the demon with it. Elias had never seen anyone move with such speed and agility as the metal of the tube clanged against the demon time after time. The demon seemed dazed by the attack, although the tube was being reduced to a crumpled ruin without any obvious damage being done.

Buffy finally had to discard the tube as the damage to it was too severe to make it a useful weapon anymore. The demon had however turned its back on Elias and he took full advantage of the opportunity. He abandoned the handgun in favour of the taser strapped to his other leg. He raced up and jabbed it into the back of the demon. Electricity arced over its surface and it roared like a rockslide. Elias barely dodged the arm it swung at him by falling backwards and landing on his butt. As he sat there the demon dissolved into a cloud of dust and vanished back into the tree line.

Buffy walked over and stretched out a hand, Elias took it and was astonished as she hauled him to his feet effortlessly, “You have a lot of questions,” she could see it in Elias’ eyes.

“Oh yeah, top of my list would be, are you a church and flowers type, or more the eloping to Las Vegas type?” he asked.

“Huh?” was all Buffy could manage.

“Just planning ahead.” Elias explained.



9. “Dust Devil”



By the time they were on their way to Buffy’s dorm room Willow and Tara were feeling a lot better; yes Amy had played them for suckers and yes there was a very nasty demon on the loose. However that was simply par for the course in Sunnydale. The important thing was that they had made up, the rest they would deal with as they always did. Willow knocked on Buffy’s door. “Did you lock yourself out?” Elias asked as he opened the door.

        Willow looked at Elias, looked at the uniform he was still wearing and jumped to a conclusion. Elias flew through the air and found himself pinned against the wall above the bed.

“What have you done with Buffy? If you’ve harmed her, I’ll make sure you never dance with anyone!” she yelled, rendering Elias even more bemused. As the memory of the future flash surfaced it occurred to Willow that it was pretty unlikely that Buffy was going to slow dance with someone who turned her over to a government goon squad. The suspicion that she might have overreacted was confirmed as Buffy appeared in the doorway clutching two cans of soda.

        “Willow would you please put the nice commando down?” She asked. As Elias slid onto the bed Buffy handed him a can, which he took, opened, and took a long gulp from. “When you said she was a witch I thought you were being harsh, but you really meant it,” He commented as he recovered.

Buffy nodded, “Willow’s hobbies include computers, witchcraft, and Tara.”

        Willow smiled and looked at her girlfriend, “Tara is not a hobby she’s a vocation.”

Buffy looked at Elias, “Sorry but I thought I might as well get all the surprises out of the way now.”

“Fine, I’m as confused as I think I can get, hell I’m still trying to figure out what that ‘dancing’ crack was about.” Elias replied.

Now Buffy looked puzzled as well, “Actually Will I wondered about that as well,” she looked pointedly at Willow.

Willow wasn’t sure how to respond, she was spared by Tara’s intervention, “Uh I hate to remind everyone but we have a serious demon problem, and Amy as well.”

Buffy’s expression shifted from puzzled to suspicious, “What about Amy?”

Willow was grateful for the diversion from her slip over the future flash and laid out the details of what they had learned about the Etappa demon and Amy. Tara could see that Buffy was getting visibly mad about what she was hearing; Elias on the other hand seemed glacially calm. Tara looked beyond that surface however and saw his aura dominated by pure anger. Tara would have expected someone that mad to be jumping up and down and screaming, Elias had it contained and focused, directed towards something, something that looked very like revenge. “So you’re saying this Amy Madison summoned this thing up, tried to steal it’s powers, screwed up, and now she’s trying save her ass and finish her plan. Where exactly can I find her?” he asked evenly.

Tara answered quickly, “I don’t think you should go and see her, we don’t have all the details and getting them has to be the first priority.”

Elias looked at Buffy and then nodded, “At this point I can’t see anyway of taking this ‘Etappa’ thing out short of a nuclear strike, so let’s see what your team can do.”

“We prefer the term ‘Scooby gang’.” Willow commented and regretted it straight away, it made them sound about five years old.

Elias sighed, “I’m going to check in with my people, and then I’ll check back with Buffy. Just remember; that thing killed two of my men, when this is over Madison is going to be brought to account for that.” It was a statement of intent that left no room for argument.

After he left the dorm room Willow turned to Buffy, “Well I like him, anyway who wants to kick Amy’s butt has to be a good guy.” Buffy didn’t answer, she was less interested in Elias’ inclination to kick Amy’s butt than the shape of his own.



After she had been chased out of Sunnydale by Buffy and her little gang Amy had stayed way from the magic for a while. In time however memories fade and distorted in the way that they always do and Amy rewrote history with herself as the victim of jealousy and betrayal. She hadn’t really done anything so terrible; Buffy and Willow and especially Tara had exaggerated everything, made her nervous and caused all the badness. With that delusion firmly in place Amy had gone back to witchcraft. Cut off from her sources in Sunnydale it hadn’t been easy and she had rapidly become frustrated; she needed a shortcut that would open up the real magic to her, a source of true power. The warlock who had sold her the spell that would call up a demon and drain its power had warned her about the risks, naturally she hadn’t paid much attention to that. Still that little problem would be resolved soon enough.

Amy hadn’t worked on telepathy and she lacked Tara’s ability to read auras but she needed neither of those to realize she was in trouble when she saw Willow, Tara and Buffy striding across the quad towards her. The last thing Amy wanted was to face those three together. Her instincts told her to run, but she knew that was pointless, Rosenberg knew where she lived. She decided to gamble on the small chance that her secret wasn’t blown, or at least find out what they knew, “Willow did you talk these two into helping us?” she asked brightly.

“Cut it out Amy, we know about that piece of performance art you pulled.” Willow answered harshly.

Amy’s last shred of hope withered and died with that comment, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Buffy stepped forward, “Amy just drop it, we know; Etappa demon, stealing its power, pissing it off, sound familiar?”

With denial also removed as an option Amy settled on sullen defiance, “I knew you two would screw things up,” she glowered at Willow and Tara.

The sheer audacity of the statement left Willow and Buffy speechless, Tara though has seen it coming, “Amy if you want to risk your own life fine no one can stop you. But you keep putting other people in danger, and now you’ve gotten people killed!”

That seemed to unsettle Amy for a moment, she quickly recovered, “Now your just making things up to try and get me to go along with you, no ones dead.” Tara was going to correct her, but a look from Buffy told her not to; she didn’t want to reveal what they knew about the commandos to Amy.

Amy took the silence as an admission that she was right, “If you want to do something useful you should stick with the plan and help me with the binding spell, it’s the only way to stop the demon now.”

“And let you steal the rest of the demons magic while we’re doing it?” Willow asked sarcastically.

Amy responded with her own biting remarks, “If I don’t then the demon might be able to break free. Maybe that’s what you want, then you can be all heroic and slay it. Oh wait if you could do that you wouldn’t be talking to me.”

Willow was getting increasingly angry; Amy had been on the ropes when they started now she was sounding pretty smug. She thought she was in control of the situation and the worst thing was that Willow suspected she was right. “What’s going on Amy?” Willow spun round to see Denise and a couple of other coven members standing there.

“Willow and Tara want us to drop the binding spell, they think you’ll just screw it up.” Amy announced.

“After they messed up the other spell?” Denise sounded outraged.

“”Oh they didn’t screw it up, their far too clever too do that.” Amy answered, managing to be both truthful and misleading all in one sentence.

“That isn’t what this is about.” Willow protested.

“The you don’t want me to disband the coven?” Amy asked sharply. Neither Willow nor Tara could come up with a reply.

“You know I thought you were nice people, how could I have been so wrong?” Denise asked sadly, “Come on Amy lets get out of here.”



As they walked back across the quad no one had much to say. Willow saw that Tara had a look of concentration on her face, “I know it looks bad honey, but we’ll just have to figure out a way to beat the coven to the punch, do the binding spell ourselves,” she tried to sound confident and reassuring.

“The binding spell, Amy was pretty definite about that wasn’t she?” Tara was still trying to put something together.

“Oh yeah.” Buffy commented.

“Well she was also pretty definite when she blamed us for messing up the summoning spell.” Tara’s thoughts were starting to come together.

“She was lying and trying to keep us off balance.” Willow agreed.

“So what if she’s lying again and still trying to keep us from thinking things through. Suppose there’s an alternative to the binding spell?” Tara was sure she was right, but she waited on Willow’s answer.

A smile spread across Willow’s face, “Yeah, the bigger the lie she’s telling the madder she gets, so this one must be huge.”

The trio stopped on the path, “Then it sounds like we should be heading for Giles’ and hit the books.” Buffy commented, and the three set off for Giles apartment feeling a lot more hopeful.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

10. “Sandstorm”



Xander was glad to see the back of the books as he closed the trunk. He never wanted to see a page of gothic script again in his life; and he never wanted to hear Anya complain about reading it again either. What made her complaints worse was that this time he agreed with her; they had spent all day doing research while Buffy and Willow blew them off. Tara had shown up for all of five minutes, looked at one book and then stormed back out. Xander sometimes wondered if the girls really needed him at all anymore. Buffy had always been able to take care of herself, more or less, and Willow and Tara, well they even managed to scare him sometimes. The door to the apartment flew open and the three girls marched. They stopped and looked around, “Where the heck are all the books?” Willow demanded, not realizing how close she came to having one bounced off her head.

        While Buffy worked on filling in the others on most of what had happened, minus the commando stuff, Willow and Tara began dragging the books back out and looking up every reference to the Etappa demon Giles and Xander had discovered earlier. It was largely just reinforcing the same things, big, practically indestructible, and ill tempered. “Anya don’t you know anything more about these demons?” Willow asked reluctantly.

        “Well I’ve never seen one like this, I’ve only ever seen them when they are possessing someone, usually do it yourself vengeance.” Anya’s voice contained an air of professional disdain, “They summon up an Etappa, merge with it and go on a murderous rampage, like I said amateurish.”

        “So its still unstoppable then?” Willow sounded discouraged.

        “Oh no, you can kill the human side or do and exorcism ritual and send it back where it came from.” Anya explained brightly.

        “Now you’re telling us this?” Buffy commented incredulously.

        “It didn’t seem to have anything to do with this situation.” Any replied, puzzled by Buffy’s attitude.

        Buffy drew a deep breath, “OK, since this thing is running around on it’s own your right, but could just tell us everything you know in future?”

        Listening to the exchange a thought struck Tara, she began to go over the books again, looking for details of the summoning spell. “What’s the matter baby?” Willow asked.

        “I had a thought about the demon.” Tara was distracted.

        “A good thought or a bad one?” Willow wondered.

        “Maybe both.” Tara answered as she tapped a page and let Willow read what was there.

        “Oh…heck.” Willow breathed as she read the details and saw what Tara was getting at, “The spell is still working.”

        That comment grabbed the attention of the others, “Which spell?” Buffy wanted to know.

        “The summoning spell, it’s still working. When Anya said she had never heard of an Etappa on the loose like this, I wondered why.” Tara explained.

        Giles saw what she was saying; “Implying that the Etappa always binds with the person who summons it, which would imply in turn that the summoning spell isn’t easily thwarted.”

        Willow handed him the book, “Impossible is more like it; this spell comes with no refunds and no returns.”

        “When Amy tries the binding spell with the coven, it’s going to be; it’s going to be bad.” Tara added.



        Elias had reported back into Initiative with edited highlights of the night’s events. He was far from ready to explain about Slayers and witches so he had settled for explaining how the missile had failed to so much as scratch the creature. Brown had simply been fascinated by it all; his only concern was the failure to collect any samples from the HST. Elias had changed back into civilian clothes and set out for Buffy’s dorm room. There hadn’t been any particular time frame for his returning but he decided not to wait around. Between the girl herself and the situation he wasn’t inclined to be patient. As it happened Elias arrived at the entrance to the dorm at the same time As Buffy arrived back from Giles’ apartment. “I said I’d check in, but I’m guessing you don have anything good to tell me.” Elias commented.

        “Good guess, come in and I’ll tell you all about it,” she hesitated, “I mean I don’t want to discuss this out here.”

        “That’s what I thought you meant.” Elias replied, graciously ignoring her embarrassment.

        Elias dropped into a chair by the door while Buffy through her jacket it in the cupboard and slammed it shut before Elias got a chance to see the chaos it contained. “So how bad is the situation?” he asked.

        Buffy sat on the bed and slid her boots off, “Amy’s little plan won’t work, even if she does it right it won’t stop the demon.”

        “Great so do you have an alternative or should I be talking to someone about that nuke?" Elias sounded disappointed rather than sarcastic.

        “Well there is a an alternative, but it would need Amy’s co-operation, and that’s not going to happen.” Buffy explained.

        “You aren’t on speaking terms.”

        “That and the fact she would actually have to put her butt on the line, so a big no.” Buffy wanted to stretch out on the bed but decided that wouldn’t really be a good idea right now.

        “Well with the power you and your friends have you could just make her.” Elias suggested cautiously.

        Buffy fixed him with a gaze, “We don’t work that way, it’s part of the package of being the Slayer.”

        Elias nodded, “I can respect that, but if you can’t talk her round how about if I try?”



Amy had decided to skip her first lecture; after the argument with the Slayer and her cronies the previous night she new she would have to find a new locale for the coven to work without anyone looking over their shoulders. The best time to scout would be when all the good girls were in class. Amy knew that Willow especially would never be able to bring herself to ‘cut’ to spy on her. The knock on the door made her heart miss a beat; had they come back for another round? Looking through the spy hole she saw a campus security guard stood outside. "What can I do for you?" she asked, while preparing a confusion spell.

        "Sorry to disturb you but I need to ask you a few questions about your roommate." Elias lied smoothly, "It would be better if we talked privately."

        Thrown off guard Amy ushered him in and closed the door, "What has Susan done?"

        Elias dropped any pretence at pleasantness, "I have no idea, what I'm here to talk about is Etappa demons."

        Amy tried to open the door and found a large hand pressed against it, “Like I said I came here to talk about the demon you let loose and how you are going to send it back where it came from.”

        Amy didn’t really register what he was saying, she was just trying to figure out if she knew Elias, “Who the hell are you?”

        “I’m an interested party who wants to make sure you finish what you started. According to Buffy and her witch friends the only way to fix things is to for you to finish the deal you made with this demon.” Elias explained.

        Amy knew what that meant and there was no way she was going to agree to that however muscle bound this guy might be, “I don’t know what they’ve told you but that group has an agenda.”

        Elias shook his head, “You really don’t know when to cut the bullshit do you? I know their agenda; kill demons, try and protect the innocent bystanders, I also know your agenda, summon another of these things up, take its power and let everyone else pay the price.”

        “If they sent you to try and talk me into helping them then you aren’t doing a very good job.” Amy wasn’t inclined to listen to some guy who was clearly just trying to get in to Buffy’s good books.

        “Really? Let me try another approach.” Amy hadn’t really paid attention to the gun holstered on Elias’ waist, now she had a close up view as the muzzle hovered inches from her face. “The way I understand it if you die this thing goes back where it came from, so if you won’t work with Buffy and the others then I really only have one option.”

        Amy was going to tell him she knew he was bluffing, except that when she looked in his eyes there was a cold determination that made her think it might be the last thing she ever said, “You wouldn’t get away with it.” she managed to say in a quavering voice.

        “Well now that isn’t really something you have to worry about is it? Your pet killed two of my men and you are going to pay for that. The only question is, how?”



Willow and Tara had spent the morning in their respective classes trying to focus on the lectures and not think about the looming disaster with the coven. As lunch approached Willow was not in the mood for eating when Tara’s voice took shape in her brain, Will, Buffy wants us to come to her dorm room.

        Did she say why? Willow felt a stirring of hope.

        No, she just said to get there as soon as possible. Tara explained.

        Ok, I’ll be there quick as I can, see you soon baby.

        When Willow got to the dorm room she was surprised to see Buffy kicking her heels on the bed and Tara just sitting staring into space. That changed as soon as she saw Willow she leapt up and gave Willow a welcoming kiss, while Buffy studied the details of one of the posters on the wall.

        “Sorry Buffy kind of got distracted.” Willow apologized, “What’s the news?”

        Buffy’s reply was disconcerting, “I have no idea.” Seeing the puzzled looks she expanded. “Before Elias left last night I gave him all the information we had and he said he was going to try and talk to Amy.”

        Willow raised her eyebrows, “After he left?”

        “He came to check in, remember he said he would.” Buffy blustered.

        Willow looked at Tara, “Sounds more like checking out than checking in.”

        “Oh absolutely.” Tara agreed smiling.

        “Knock it off guys, after Parker it’s going to be a good long while before I get involved with anyone else.” Buffy insisted. She couldn’t help but notice that Willow kept right on smiling.

        There was a knock at the door that Buffy was only too happy to answer. She opened it find Elias standing in the hallway with Amy in front of him. “I brought a gift.” Elias explained. Any cast him a look that was venomous and fearful at the same time. “She’s had a change of heart and decided to help you with whatever plan you might come up with.”

        The three girls simply stared at him for a moment, Willow was tempted to ask how he had persuaded Amy, then she had the very strong feeling that she didn’t want to know.



11. “Carved in Stone”



What would dad think of me spending so much time hanging around a church? Willow wondered to herself, and decided that compared to her being a gay witch it would make a nice change of pace. Her parents had finally accepted that Tara and the magic were not something that was going away, but they still dropped little hints about grandchildren that tempted Willow to explain about some of her suspicions about the way the future would work out, that would probably drive them to a nervous breakdown though. She looked out of the chapel and saw Elias talking with Buffy and Xander, well talking with Buffy while Xander stood around looking anxious. Willow smiled and shook her head, after all this time Xander still got Jealous whenever a new man entered Buffy’s life, she should just tell him that Elias and Buffy were inevitable and to deal with it. “What is that supposed to be?” The sound of Amy whining dragged Willow back to what they were doing here.

        Tara was holding out a small flask to Amy, “ It’s just a mix of herbs that act as a mild sedative,” she explained patiently.

        “You want to drug me now?” Amy complained.

        “I just thought that with a demon coming to possess you might want something to help you stay calm, and it will make it easier for us to exorcise the demon if you aren’t totally connected with it.” Tara suggested, while slowly moving to put the flask away.

        Amy snatched at it, “Give it to me,” she took a swig, shuddered and thrust it back at Tara. “Why am I doing this?”

        “Because Elias made you.” Willow pointed out.

        “His gun made me.” Amy replied, but the sedative was already taking some of the venom out of her tone. Willow had heard Amy’s account of what happened at the dorm room and she still wasn’t sure how much truth it contained, in fact she wasn’t that concerned, Amy had hurt people time and again and didn’t seem willing to take any responsibility for it. If Elias got her to realize there were consequences for her actions, then that was of the good.

        “Willow I think it’s time to go.” Tara announced, pointing off into the distance. Willow followed her arm and saw a swirl of dust emerging from the tree line.

        “Stay right where you are Amy.” Willow instructed her, Amy still didn’t look happy, but she remained calm and stood where she was as Willow and Tara dashed outside.

        Elias saw Willow and Tara running towards him and then spotted the dust devil heading for the chapel, “Guess that puts me up, “ he ran towards the church with the shock rifle cradled in his arm.

Buffy looked distinctly unhappy as Willow and Tara joined her, and Willow could guess why, “He’ll be ok,” she promised.

“I hope so, but we better concentrate on getting ready.” Buffy suggested. Willow nodded and opened the shoulder bag that was lying next to Buffy.

The slayer was far form happy with a plan that called for her to stand around and do nothing. If the demon had turned up in its rock form she could have helped Elias, but against a dust cloud Elias’s rifle was about the only thing that might weaken it. The more of it’s strength he could drain the easier the task would be for Willow and Tara. Buffy looked at the couple and saw Tara place a candle in Willow’s hands and light it while repeating some Latin words over and over. From the opposite direction she heard the crackle of the shock rifle, but Buffy resisted the urge to turn and watch. Tara took a small vial of oil and began to mark magical symbols on Willow’s face; even in the midst of this crisis Tara’s fingers seemed to caress Willow’s cheeks. “Buffy I think we need to speed this up.” Xander commented and now Buffy did look over her shoulder, Elias was running at right angles to the chapel and the dust cloud was moving to envelope it, a little hesitantly, as if it was in pain. Buffy looked at Tara who looked anxious but nodded and took the candle from Willow’s hands. Buffy looked towards Willow and hastily looked away, even though Willow appeared normal Buffy’s eyes had started to ache as though she was gazing into a blinding light.

Willow turned to face the chapel and it seemed to happen twice, like some part of her was turning more slowly than the rest, or something was turning with her. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was standing looking over her shoulder. She ignored it and began to walk towards the chapel, barely able to feel the ground beneath her feet, as though she was floating towards the dilapidated church.

Elias lay stretched out on the grass with the shock rifle lying beside him. He reached into his jacket and produced his automatic from a shoulder holster. He doubted that the others would approve so he had kept it out of sight; he wasn’t going to go into any fight however strange without a contingency plan. He could see Willow heading for the chapel even though he couldn’t look directly at her. He found he could look at what emerged from the chapel, he just wasn’t sure he wanted to.

Willow stopped a few feet from the door to the chapel. There had been no sound from inside after the dust cloud disappeared, or possibly Willow just couldn’t hear properly under the circumstances. What emerged from the doorway wasn’t like either incarnation of the Etappa they had encountered before. The figure appeared to be carved from dark coloured marble with blood red veins running through it. The shape of the figure was appallingly familiar; it was very definitely still Amy, or at least a bad statue of her. “Willow hey your still here.” Amy's voice was low and had a gravelly quality, it was still unmistakably Amy’s, “That’s good because you were right; I did need to go through with this, this way when I end your life the demon gets to take all the blame.”

Willow didn’t rise to the bait; the only emotion she could summon for Amy was pity. Her mother had betrayed the girl in an appalling way and it had damaged her, possibly beyond any possibility of repair. That feeling of pity was again coming from somewhere outside of Willow, that whatever it was that was watching over her shoulder. She didn’t enjoy the sensation; this had to end, now. “Why don’t you just try?” Willow asked. Amy didn’t need a second invitation and moved towards Willow, energy crackling around her outstretched hands. Willow took her totally by surprise by wrapping her hands around Amy’s. Willow could swear that she felt something rush past her and engulf Amy. Then she was landing on her back and looking up into the blue sky.



As Tara saw her girlfriend fly through the air she rushed forward to reach her, practically wrapping her arms around Willow as she hit the ground. She had seen something fold itself around Willow as she performed the spell. Tara simply had no reference point to try and describe it, all she knew was that it was big and powerful and not one of the bad guys. “Did it work?” Willow muttered and Tara realized that she hadn’t even looked towards Amy, what she saw didn’t really give her a clear answer to Willow’s question. Amy was kneeling on the ground looking exactly as she had when they had left her in the chapel, which was good. What wasn’t so good was the hazy grey cloud hanging above her head. It looked like a satellite photograph of a hurricane, a mass of cloud swirling around a centre. The Etappa demon wasn’t gone even though the vortex looked to be trying to suck it out of the universe; something was holding the vortex open.

It was when she saw the stress on Amy’s face that she had an intuition what it was, “Amy let go of the magic, give it back!” she shouted. Amy was still holding on to the part of the demon’s power she had taken and that was holding the creature partly in this world despite the force that was trying to tear it out. It wasn’t a situation that could last, something would give and that could let the demon come spilling back in again.

“There is no way I’m letting it go,” Amy screamed angrily, “I have been through too much crap to come out of this with nothing!”

Tara tired to think of something she could say to persuade Amy, but Willow groaned and Tara’s attention was drawn away as she made sure that Willow was ok. When she looked back she was horrified to see the vortex was descending over Amy. She was engulfed in the grey swirl and then it collapsed in on itself and was gone, and Amy was gone right along with it.

Elias had watched all of this from his prone position; gun in hand ready to act. He had largely forgotten about it as he watched the bizarre forces that had been unleashed in this quiet corner of a small town college. I really must thank Finn for getting reassigned, he thought, and then he spotted Buffy moving to join Willow and Tara and decided that maybe this assignment had its compensations.

As he reached the girls Willow was looking miserable and talking in a shaky voice, “That wasn’t the plan, wee were supposed to save her, save everyone.”

Tara tried to be comforting, “Baby it wasn’t your fault she wouldn’t let go of the magic, she still thought she could outsmart all that power.”

Willow didn’t seem to be responding, so Elias added his two cents, “Willow there are people who just can’t be helped. They are determined to find a way to get into trouble, the best you can do is stop them taking other people with them.” His words were sincere and Willow tried to take them aboard. She let Tara draw her to her feet and get her away from the chapel and any trace of the coven.



12. “Broken Walls”



Elias stared at the walls of the Bronze and sipped at the scotch he had ordered from the bar, it wasn’t especially good, it did however have the expected soothing effect. The day had been beyond strange, everything he had read in the file on Sunnydale was a pale reflection of what he had encountered at the chapel. Demons and magic, not HST’s and energy fields, real monsters; and real heroes? Long standing habits had led him to choose a seat against the wall where he could watch the door so he saw Buffy the instant she walked into the bar. She was clad in a knee length skirt, high boots and a sweater. Attractive, Elias thought, without being too sexy. A cautious choice he decided.

        Buffy also saw Elias and strode over to him grabbing the seat opposite and sitting down without waiting for an invitation. “You want to know what I told my superiors.” Elias commented.

        Buffy nodded, “Partly, I also wanted to see how you were doing,” she admitted.

        “Well I didn’t tell them anything about today, there was no way I could explain it, even if I wanted to.”

        Buffy had hoped that would be the case, “That’s good, but you didn’t answer the other question.”

        “That’s because I have no idea how I’m doing.” Elias offered.

        “ I know that feeling, do you dance?” Buffy blurted the last part out.

        “Not well.” Elias responded cautiously.

        “Then you could probably use some practice.” Buffy suggested as she slid out of her seat and headed for the dance floor.

        Elias contemplated the scotch in the glass for a second and then pushed it aside and headed after Buffy.



        Amy was utterly miserable, everything looked so familiar and still it was wrong, off in subtle ways, and not so subtle. She had seen Sunnydale High as a burned and blasted ruin when she returned to Sunnydale. Now it was standing there unscathed and with what looked like a brand-new wing added to it.

When the vortex had descended over her Amy had been sat in the grass next to the chapel. The next thing she was falling and falling through darkness, desperately trying to grab hold of something before she hit bottom. She had felt something solid, latched onto it for all she was worth and then it was night and she was standing in downtown Sunnydale.

Amy made her way to the Bronze, she considered going back to the university but she was afraid of running into that gun toting lunatic Carter. At the Bronze she might run into people she knew and there was enough of a crowd to keep anyone from making trouble for her. She halted as got with in a few feet of the entrance, the discrete sign that advertised the Bronze had been replaced by a large garish hunk of neon that announced the club as ‘The Palace’.

The headache that had been building in Amy was now pounding, none of what she was seeing made sense. A low snarl grabbed her attention and she spun round to see a rather degenerate vampire emerged form the shadows and advance on her. She tried to summon up a spell, however all her energies were drained and the hesitation had allowed the vampire to pounce.

As the bloodsucker leapt a ball of green fire emerged from Amy’s left and struck the vampire engulfing the creature in lurid flame. The vampire burned for longer than Amy would have thought possible, screaming in pain until it finally dissolved into dust. “Now Amy Madison what are you doing here?” A cynical voice asked.

Amy turned but the figure was lurking in the shadows, “I have every right to be here.” The voice annoyed Amy.

“Not really, you’re dead you see.” The voice explained pleasantly.

Amy shook her head and regretted it, the pounding in her head just got worse, “That’s ridiculous, what would make you think that?”

The figure emerged from the shadows into a pool of light spilling in from the main street, “Well because I killed you.” Amy didn’t know which was more shocking, the announcement of her murder or the sight of Willow Rosenberg with jet-black hair.



At some point the bedclothes had bee kicked to the floor and Willow and Tara lay twined together, drawing warmth from one another’s bodies, more or less content to just lie there and be together, “I was just wondering if it would be so bad to mess with history again?” Willow wondered.

        “So we could just spend the last few days in bed?” Tara murmured, letting her finger stray down Willow’s spine.

        “Well there is that, I was thinking more of avoiding the whole mess with the coven to begin with.” Willow stroked her left leg along Tara’s as she made the comment

        “I’m not so sure that would be a good thing.” Tara commented, actually more interested in nuzzling Willow’s neck.

        Willow was enjoying that far too much to get worked up and began working her fingers over Tara’s nipples, “What do you mean?”

        Tara started to explain, “I mean,” she hesitated as Willow tweaked her left nipple and sent a shiver through her, “I mean you got pretty caught up in that whole coven idea.”

        That might have upset Willow if she hadn’t know how true it was, “I got kind of carried away,” she agreed, and then kissed Tara’s mouth, lightly to start with and then with growing intensity.

        “Yes you did, but so did I, let’s not do that again?” Tara suggested when Willow broke away. Tara let her hand slide over Willow’s thigh and down between her legs and let her fingers tease Willow’s sex.

        “Never ever again.” Willow murmured before the conversation dissolved into panting moaning, and the occasional howl of ecstasy.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

ooooww...an alternate universe ?? How come DMW is there already, kinda odd since she's not supposed to even exist let alone *die* in season 4 .



I like how much more is done with Amy in this fic, compared to season6-Amy. Willow and Tara viewing things differently was refreshing, they should have some differences, this one was well done. Willow going for knowledge and trying all she can, Tara being more cautious.



I couldn't really pinpoint WHY Tara was so opposed to the Coven, except for them being amateurs of course. She could have explained that better to Willow for sure since most of her objections were only feelings (i.e. not mentioned to Willow).



Liked the flowers a lot, typical Willow .



You do write HUGE updates by-the-way, this me soooo not complaining though, heh .



Grimmy

"Why w-w-would anyone leave Willow?" It was a concept Tara just could not grasp. -- I Dream of Thee by Jomarch

cool update, really enjoyed it

Dude, we're surrounded by perverts!

2nd place??? That's just a fancy term for loser!

Screw you triangle thief!

Quote:

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ooooww...an alternate universe ?? How come DMW is there already, kinda odd since she's not supposed to even exist let alone *die* in season 4... couldn't really pinpoint WHY Tara was so opposed to the Coven

---

Well the first question is easy Grimlock It's Amy whose dead 'cause Willow killed her, and Willow went all DMW because she's been fighting a one witch war against the demons since Angelus vamped Buffy back in Becoming...

Tara has observed some spectacular magical screw ups that she doesn't want to discuss because they involve deceased family members...What you expected a straight answer?

Quote:

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cool update, really enjoyed it

---

Thanks Grimaldi the next story is about 10,000 words along, so the it should be done in a week to 10 days with a favourable wind

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Edited by: Sheridan at: 10/10/02 4:46:31 pm

Great update!

I was plesantly suprised to see it back again.

Hmm coven, many possibilities.

Amy-such a bitch, some things never change

BV

"In front of total strangers won't you kiss me, Flowers for no reason but you miss me - OOH, I wanna be in love"

Melissa Etheridge-Skin

I like how you portrayed the Initative. Sonds just like them. Taser doesn't work, got get the launcher



And Xander, I like how you still worked in how that gang is drifting apart. Especially Willow adn Tara having differences. I can't wait to see the continuation of their fallout like in season4.



I am so glad you got rid of Riley!!!!!! Elias sounds much more genuine, and much more suited for Buffy. Are we going to get more back story on him??



Loved it Can't wait for the next part. Can there be Rosenberg parents in it???



-Will

"Hear that baby? You're my always."

"well, you know, when you play a lesbian witch you've gotta get killed in this fun kind of exciting way, so the heart was the way to go..."

"we have the most amazing fans though they LOVE us."

Sheridan,



I am so glad you updated this. I have been looking forward to how you keep handling Tara in an alternate universe. Love Tara is always the voice of reason.



Can anyone ever get through to Amy?



BTW, I like Riley, and I wish you had kept him in. I have no idea why people hate him so much besides the fact he isn't Angel. Yes, he makes mistakes, but he is a lot better person than Spike is and ever will be.

Tara: My heart doesn't stutter.

Tara: Willow, I got so lost.
Willow: I found you. I will always find you.

Willow: Hi, um Tara. I was wondering maybe you want to go out some time for coffee? food? Kisses and gay love?

Edited by: The Rose24  at: 10/10/02 11:13:20 pm

Quote:

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Great update!...Amy-such a bitch, some things never change

---

Thanks barnabasvamp and I promise you where Amy is she is learning to regret ever looking at a magic book.

Quote:

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BTW, I like Riley, and I wish you had kept him in. I have no idea why people hate him so much besides the fact he isn't Angel. Yes, he makes mistakes, but he is a lot better person than Spike is and ever will be.



I am so glad you got rid of Riley!!!!!! Elias sounds much more genuine, and much more suited for Buffy. Are we going to get more back story on him??

---

TheRose24 and Willntlover I always felt Riley had a basic problem, that yes he was a nice guy and his character would have been fine if he really was just a teaching assistant. Problem was he is supposed to have been a special forces soldier which means that at some level he has a harder edge, the ability however reluctantly to kill if the circumstances called for it. Riley never struck me as having that edge, and to be honest to hold Buffy's attention I think a guy needs a little bit of a dark side. As to the back story, yes more of that will come out with time...

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Edited by: Sheridan at: 10/11/02 4:23:21 am

Oh I knew we hadn't seen the last of that rat Amy! I like how Willow realised for herself that Amy was up to no good, it shows how her intuition is improving, even if it did take her a while!



Am intrigued about this extra presence Willow felt during the spell. Wonder was LJ giving a helping hand again.



The mad cloud disease was really funny.

Adding up the total of a love that's true, multiply life by the power of two
Indigo Girls

Am intrigued about this extra presence Willow felt during the spell. Wonder was LJ giving a helping hand again.[/quote]



Mollyig Nah LJ would only show up if they were in real trouble! Glad you enjoyed the story.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Can I just say that I finally had the opportunity to catch up with your series.....and oh my god....I am in heaven...I've read the entire series twice so far and will probably read it again while awaiting your next masterpiece.



The way you've managed to work Tara into the earlier episodes is absolute genius.



I compend your incredible imagination and happily await the next adaptation in a truly awe-inspiring series.

Love Will Find a Way

Quote:

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The way you've managed to work Tara into the earlier episodes is absolute genius.

---

So Jessan you thought it was sort of ok then?

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Owing to circumstances beyind my control my cmputer is down and may be that way for some weeks, so I'm afraid that there isn't going to be an update for a while. I'll try to keep you up to date from other sources but at the moment I can't write anything.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Bummer, but we will wait

BV

"In front of total strangers won't you kiss me, Flowers for no reason but you miss me - OOH, I wanna be in love"

Melissa Etheridge-Skin

Thanks Barnabasvamp, hopefully I can retrieve the outline notes of the S4 finale and get access to a new machine shortly. Major caualty may be 'Grand Canyon' which was 80% done, and I really cant face rewriting it from scratch, may wind up posting them out of order.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

I'm sure it will be great, no matter how you end up posting it

Just hanging out, waiting

BV

"In front of total strangers won't you kiss me, Flowers for no reason but you miss me - OOH, I wanna be in love"

Melissa Etheridge-Skin

Sheridan, wow..I finally caught up. This is great, I really like the whole idea trying to change things but not screwing things up in the process, also the way you're writing it..they're episodes..the Willow/Tara show..hehe and of course working Tara to be in there alot earlier. I am really enjoying this fic.

Hey don't worry about updating. I hope everything works out with your PC.

Tk's new and improved "GrrArgg"...Tk's Heaven

-----------------------------
Tara was similarly riveted, her body on slow burn as Willow's lips parted and her mouth opened, the food slipping inside and being consumed. Never in her life had Tara ever wanted to be a chicken casserole so badly...Later that night..."It's good to be a chicken casserole," Tara murmured, before passing out. ~ Answering Darkness by Sassette

Sigh, my hope of getting copies of my outlines for the finale have evaporated so I'm going to have to reconstruct them, hopefully might get to writing them next week, also planning a trip aborad so soewhat distracted, sorry.

- - - - - - - - - - - -


Willow: ...I have to tell you....


Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the

person you l-love


Willow: I am

Sheridan, just got caught up. I really liked the conflicts you built between w/t but unlike the show they can talk and work things out, w/t are different people and have different approaches. Also enjoyed the last update where the parents were very much a part of everything. Willow was being a bit bratty, I am glad Tara intervened though and that Joyce was such a help. Look forward to more

-------------------------------

Buffy?

Let's change it, the Discovery channel has koala bears.

Thanks for the kind words Xita, after a quick stop in New York I'm now in Denver visiting a friend and then in about a week I'll be in Florida, so It's been a little difficult to write. I am however about 12500 words in to 'Blur' and it should be finished within about a week with a fair wind.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....



Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the

person you l-love



Willow: I am

Cool! The hopeful out look of "Blur" to read after a big,big, huge, big, big (did i mention important?) essay!!



-Will

"Hear that baby? You're my always."



"well, you know, when you play a lesbian witch you've gotta get killed in this fun kind of exciting way, so the heart was the way to go..."



"we have the most amazing fans though they LOVE us."

Title: Blur

Author: Mike Mullen

Rating: NC-17/18 because of violence and adult themes.

Spoilers: None what so ever

Disclaimer: All the original BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and ME, everyone else in the stories are my personal slaves.

Summary: Our girls find themselves up to their necks in trouble as bunch of old friends show up and the Scoobu gang is on the brink of falling apart.

Authors notes: This begins an S4 arc that takes in the Initiative and some old enemies as well.

Feedback: Just add your comments at the end of the story.



















Every single day was a nightmare for Warren Mears. His life had been reduced to working in a lab with a bunch of government so-called scientists; all of who were has-beens, if they had ever been in the first place. When he wasn't in the lab painfully trying to explain his ideas to the dullards he was reduced to sitting in his room staring at the walls. No one was under any illusions about Warren's status, he was a prisoner who enjoyed a certain latitude as long as he was useful; the moment he decided not to be useful then there a couple of nice deep holes in Alaska or Nevada these people could drop him in and simply delete him from the world as though he had never been born.

        All of this was a million miles away from where he was supposed to be. The proceeds from the use of his jammer gadget were supposed to set Warren free. He could turn his back on his parents, the high school, and the whole loser town of Sunnydale in fact. Instead he had wound up wearing a pair of handcuffs and being shoved into the back of a police cruiser, all because of Willow Rosenberg and her buddies. That none of it would have happened if he had remained honest simply didn't occur to Warren.

        Colonel Gough had spent a career dealing with some of the most advanced and exotic weapons in the US arsenal, while at the same time making absolutely sure no one knew anything about them. A less taciturn character than Gough might have found it all a strain, Gough just enjoyed the sense of superiority. One of the drawbacks of his job was dealing with the eccentric types who dredged up the ideas that the organization depended on.

        He pressed the buzzer that announced that his visitor could enter and sat silently as the nervous figure of Warren Mears entered. Gough let him take a seat and studiously ignored Warren while making a show of going over a file he had already thoroughly memorized.

        Warren was too nervous to be patient, "Colonel I know you aren't happy about the last test series..."

        "What exactly would I be unhappy about?" Gough interrupted, "Having to have animal remains sponged off the walls again?"

        Warren winced but kept his voice steady; "I've explained that we are having problems getting the unit attuned to maintain cellular integrity."

        Gough wasn't impressed with the techno babble, "You mean your gadget cause animals to explode?" Warren simply nodded by way of reply. "Would a test subject with a higher degree of resilience help you?"

        Warren hesitated to respond, "It probably would," he replied cautiously.

        Now Gough let a small smile appear on his face, "Then you're in luck. There is another research facility which can provide just such a test subject, I can arrange for you and your equipment to be transferred there within a couple of days." Gough knew that Warren couldn't object. If he did there was a nice stockade waiting for him.

        Warren sighed, "I guess I better go pack then."

        "I think you should." Gough didn't disguise his pleasure at getting Warren out of his hair.



        Warren waited until he was twenty yards down the corridor before he let a smug grin spread across his face. He hadn't dared even hint about such an idea to Gough, he had simply had to hope the military bonehead would think of it on his own. Now he was out of here and on his way home, where he could finally get everything that Rosenberg had cheated him out of.



        Despite the thickness of his body armour agent McCullugh shivered in the cold, the lack of physical activity making it impossible to generate any warmth as he lay in the undergrowth and looked out through the trees towards the target. The compound that the taskforce was watching blended in with the surrounding forest. It was composed of broad, single story log cabins which were enclosed by wood and earth ramparts covered with brush. It might have passed for some variety of scout camp if it wasn't for the large shooting range that dominated one end of the compound.

        Tracing the militia base had taken many months of work, especially as this organization hadn't been a high priority originally, others seemed far more threatening. That had changed after they had somehow blacked out an army base in California and tried to empty its armoury. Simply trying to get the straight story on that out of the local authorities had been a trying business for the FBI, especially as it became apparent that the police simply didn't know what had happened.

        Thompson dropped down beside McCullugh, "Anything?" he asked.

        "Nothing apart from the onset of frostbite." McCullugh responded. There had been nothing for the two days and nights they had been observing this place. Its apparent abandonment meant very little. It was standard operating procedure for these groups to dig bunkers and tunnels under their bases, and to have all manner of trap doors and booby traps to ambush anyone unwary enough to simply walk in.

        Thompson looked disappointed, "Well in that case the chief wants us to go in."

        From being freezing cold McCullugh began to sweat, "When?"

        "In about an hour." Thompson responded.

        "Fuck, couldn't we wait till nightfall?" McCullugh asked; trying his best not to sound scared.

        "Command figures theses guys have got just as much night vision gear as we have. Less opportunity for friendly fire in broad daylight." Thompson explained. The possibility of being shot by one of his own people did nothing to improve McCullugh's mood.

        A couple of hours later fear had given way to bemusement and embarrassment; sentiments shared by the rest of the FBI and ATF personnel poking into every corner of the compound. The inescapable conclusion was that the militia had departed this place along with all their arms and supplies days before the FBI had surrounded the compound. The place was basically a shell; all the militia seemed to have left behind were empty food cans and ashes in the fireplace. McCullugh stirred the ashes with his foot and saw a few scraps of unburned paper. One of them bore a couple of words. They provided no great clue as he had no idea what 'Operation Demon' might be.



        The place in which the shadow resided was featureless and formless in human terms, it's only recommending feature was the way it let him see the entire human world at once; giving it a view of all the activities of the overabundant human species. The lack of any amenity hadn't bothered the shadowy thing, over the millennia it had forgotten about such things as taste, touch, and vision. It had forgotten how much it been denied in its long exile. That had changed when the shadow had finally seen the chance to return and wreak havoc on the humans. A brief return to the world had let it experience all those lost pleasures. The briefness was the reason for the sense of humiliation the creature felt, it had been driven out by those self same worthless mortals. It was impossible for a couple of mere mortals to have defeated it, nonetheless it had happened and now the being was all to aware of the Spartan nature of its hiding place. This debacle had given its desire for vengeance a face, an elfin female face framed with copper red hair.

        The shadow had narrowed its attention to one small corner of the earth, searching for some engine of vengeance in Southern California and after months that had seemed longer than the millennia that went before it had finally found something. The shadow let go of the place it was anchored to and drifted back into the material realm once more.

        It was twilight as the shadow being crept over the ground, allowing it to blend in amongst its more natural counterparts and evade any detection. It moved alongside a highway and saw the traffic whizzing past. Machinery, why are they so obsessed with twisting metal into such complex forms? It thought. Humans seemed to have no comprehension of the true nature of power, or at least most of them didn't. The shadow was honest enough to admit that overconfidence may have played a part in its previous failure.

        It kept going until it found an off ramp and a diner set near the end of it. The car park was about a third full and the vehicles were broadly spread out, which suited the creature. An RV pulled into the car park and found a space in a quiet corner. It contained only one occupant who climbed out and stretched besides his vehicle, in no great hurry to head for the diner. There was no sound as the shadow approached him but he somehow the man sensed it and turned to face whoever was creeping up on it. What he saw left the man simply standing and staring as the shadow enveloped him and burned its way into his soul. The shadow looked around the car park; no one had seen what had happened. The shadow could sense the beginnings of hunger in the man; it wasn't enough to persuade the creature to experience the doubtful cuisine of the diner. The shadow climbed back into the RV and drove back on to the highway, noting the sign that said 'Sunnydale 10 miles' as it put its foot down on the gas.

2. "Trust Game"

Willow woke with the faintest suggestion of a headache and some difficulty recalling precisely what had happened the night before. Opening her eyes just the bare minimum verified that she was in her own dorm room and Tara was in fact laying next to her, so whatever had happened wasn't anything disastrous. Willow closed her eyes again and made an earnest effort to remember where they had gone the previous night, the fundraiser. The Lesbian Alliance had been holding a fundraising event for it's telephone hotline and Tara and her had been talked into buying a couple of tickets and going along.

        After that Willow found remembering harder going. There had been wine, dancing, and a raffle in which she had won some sort of prize. She struggled to recall what it was, a wicker basket came to mind, a wicker basket containing...fruit, it was a basket of fruit.

        Willow sat bolt upright in bed as her recollection of the night before crystallized. She looked around the dorm room properly and was appalled by the sight of discarded clothing mixed with the remains of the fruit basket. Several banana skins especially caught her attention and Willow's cheeks coloured as she recalled what exactly had happened with them.

        After a brief shower to remove a certain stickiness Willow intended to get on with trying to turn her living space from a pigsty back into a dorm room. As she walked in She found Tara with a sheet wrapped around her gingerly picking fruit peel off the floor, "Honey why don't you go clean up first, I'll do that."

        Tara looked blearily at her, "I just meant to find my bra and I just got kind of carried away. I did wear a bra last night didn't I?" she asked.

        Willow was pretty sure the answer was yes, and she had vague recollection of it flying towards an open window. She decided not to mention that to Tara just yet, "Why don't you go shower and I'll look?"

        Tara nodded and instantly regretted it, "Remind me never to drink red wine again,” she murmured as she walked towards the door. Willow blocked her way and unwound the sheet from around Tara before wrapping her own robe around her girlfriend.



        By the time Tara had finished with the hot water Willow had dressed, dashed down stairs and found the bush that Tara's lacy bra was hanging from. She had hastily thrown it under the bed as she heard the door open, and then dropped to her hands and knees to 'search' for it. "Here it is baby," she offered brightly.

        Tara looked far from convinced as she took the garment from Willow, "Thanks but you know I'm sure that's the first place I looked," she pointed out.

        "Let's just say that's where it was and leave it at that, ok?" Willow suggested.

        "I think I can live with that." Tara decided.

        Willow looked closely at Tara; the shower had perked her up but Tara still looked a little green, "Are you sure your ok?"

        "Not one hundred percent, I think I need some juice and a handful of aspirin." Tara admitted.

        "I could get them for you." Willow offered.

        Tara shook her head; "I can get them from the cafeteria."

        Now Willow grimaced, "I really don't think I can face all that food just yet."

        "Well I'll go have some juice, you go take a walk, and we can meet up a little later; sound good?" Tara proposed.

        Willow walked over and kissed her on the cheek, "Sounds perfect."



        The walk started out as just a stroll around the quad. Somehow though Willow found herself heading for Lowell House. Tara would definitely not approve of her destination. Tara shared Willow's suspicions about the Initiative; about the hidden agenda they were pursuing. They were equally clear that the Initiative were prepared to go to extreme lengths to keep that agenda secret. For that reason Tara favoured avoiding antagonizing them, at least until they could persuade Buffy and the others that the two of them were right about the commandos. Willow sympathized with Tara's attitude; the snag was that Willow couldn't see how they were going to get the evidence without being a little more proactive.

        On a Saturday morning Lowell House maintained the hungover air of any other frat house and some of its inhabitants worked harder at maintaining cover than others. This went so far as having co-eds in their rooms, so the sight of Willow wandering the halls didn't draw any attention, or least not the Initiative kind of attention. From Buffy's description Willow knew that there was some kind of retinal scanner behind the mirror in the hall and behind that there was the main personnel elevator down to the Initiative's lab.

        It occurred to Willow that this couldn't be the only entrance. There were vehicles and big pieces of equipment down in the labs and they could hardly march captured demons through Lowell house. All that demonic goo would ruin the carpets for one thing. Willow was wondering if there was any way that she could bypass the security system, without a valid retinal print that didn't seem likely and she couldn't think of any non-icky way of getting one. There was always the concealment glamour but using it to ride down in elevator full of bulky commandos didn't appeal.

        "What brings you around here Rosenberg?" Forrest asked. He had spotted Willow staring at the mirror and was pretty sure that she wasn't checking her makeup.

        Forrest hadn't bothered to conceal the hostility in his attitude but Willow decided to keep things civil, "I was looking for Buffy," she lied genially.

        "Well you ain't going to find her in there," he replied pointedly.

        "I thought she might be downstairs." Willow pointed out, and suppressed a smile at the look of discomfort that crossed Forrest's face.

        "Yeah well she isn't. You'll probably find her upstairs with Elias." Now it was Willow's turn to look uncomfortable. She muttered a thank you and headed for the staircase.



        Buffy pulled her sweater on and wondered if it was time to have the drawer discussion. She was spending so many nights here and turning up places wearing the same clothes two days running just seemed way too trampy. Still she wasn't sure that Elias was ready for that level of commitment. As much as she tried to hide it Buffy couldn't shake off that underlying insecurity she felt in her relationships, some mornings she still woke with a feeling of amazement when Elias was still there; and a sense of panic when he wasn't. This morning had been one of the latter; Elias had to go off to some briefing and had left her sleeping.

        Fully dressed Buffy walked out into the hall and almost ran straight over Willow.

        "Will? What's the matter?" Buffy felt a surge of adrenaline at the prospect of some new supernatural threat.

        Now that she was actually face-to-face with Buffy Willow realized that her cover story was a little on the thin side, "Oh it's no big, just wanted to check in."

        Buffy knew there was no way that Willow had just dropped into the heart of the Initiative for chat, "Great, why don't we go find some food? I'm starving." Buffy made the suggestion sound light but her gaze was hard. As soon as they were out of Lowell House Buffy let the pretence drop, "Are you trying to ruin Elias' life?" she demanded.

        Willow was surprised, she had expected a harsh comment but not along this line, "I like Elias." It was perfectly true, she thought Elias was right for Buffy and Willow knew that the pair were going to be together for a good long while to come, though she hadn't shared that knowledge with Buffy.

        "Well if you like him why do you keep trying to make trouble for him?" Willow didn't answer Buffy's question so Buffy pressed on, "Will he's been getting a lot pressure about working with a bunch of outsiders and you coming snooping around just makes it harder for him." Buffy explained emphatically.

        Willow was taken aback by the sheer self-involvement of Buffy's argument, "Buffy this isn't about Elias, this is about what all his buddies are up to. The Initiative is messing with the dark forces and they have no idea what they're doing."

        "Prove it." Buffy demanded.

        "I might be able to if you would just open your eyes and help me." Willow suggested angrily.

        "I don't spy on people I care about!" Buffy responded vehemently, "And you haven't come up with one thing that would even come close to persuading me otherwise." With that Buffy stormed off towards her dorm.



        Doctor Brown read the brief report sent down by agent Forrest, it was simply one more instance of the Rosenberg girl meddling with things she should leave alone. He would have suggested stronger measures be taken if he thought he could get it past Carter. Brown put the piece of paper into the shredder and went into the complex. He found the new arrival standing in the pit staring at the walls and looking mildly impressed, "Mr. Mears." Brown announced, with a disparaging emphasis on the 'Mr.', Brown was very unhappy about having a totally unqualified person attached to his team.

        "That's me." Warren answered and stuck his hand out. Brown reluctantly took it.

        "I understand you have some sort of device you want to test?" Brown had very little faith in electronic hardware; the behavioral modification chips developed by Professor Walsh had been far from successful. Only one had been implanted and worked; and that test subject had been 'mislaid'.

        "Its more than just some device," Warren enthused, "The accelerator moves you into a whole new level of reality. You're moving in a time frame where the rest of the world is moving at a snail's pace. You're like a Hummingbird on speed."

        Brown was not carried along by Warren's sales pitch, "Well assuming that such an unlikely device could be constructed why would you need the assistance of the Initiative?"

        Now Warren looked a little less sure, "Well the accelerator works, it just sort of, overstresses the test animals."

        " Incinerated or exploded I believe would be more accurate." Brown suggested, revealing that he had rather more knowledge of the accelerator than he had previously implied.

        "I just need a test subject that can stand the stresses, so I can calibrate, that's what you've been told to do isn't it?" Warren whined.

        Brown took umbrage at the suggestion he was just a lackey, "I will arrange for a suitable subject and you had better hope your device works rather better than it has previously." Brown decided that ended the conversation and walked back to his office.

        Warren stared after the man and choked back a retort; he had to focus on the big picture. He was in the right place at the right time, he would show Brown who really had the power here soon enough.

3. "Sides"

Tara had finished her juice and tablet breakfast and made her way back to the dorm room feeling considerably better and able now to appreciate how much fun the previous night had been. It been good to be in a social setting where they blended in and were just part of the crowd. Of course she had experienced that to a degree with the Scooby gang. Recently however that had faded away as Willow and Buffy had drifted apart. It concerned Tara not just because she hated to see such a strong friendship fall apart but also because it undermined their ability to fight the bad guys. That in turn pushed Buffy closer to the Initiative, which made Willow less willing to work with the Slayer. It was a vicious circle that Tara couldn't see a way out of and none of the others seemed able to help. Giles and Xander either hadn't noticed, or chose to ignore the tension between Willow and Buffy; as for Anya if it didn't have dollar signs on it she wasn't interested, period.

        Tara decided to drop her line of thought before she got another headache. The sound of feet stomping up the stairs made Tara hesitate; there was no reason to suppose it was Willow, Tara just had a sudden powerful intuition which was confirmed as her girlfriend appeared in the hallway with a very sour look on her face. "What happened honey?"

        Willow hadn't expected to run into Tara so soon and had still been brooding about the argument. Tara was clearly concerned and Willow decided to just take a deep breath and spill, "I walked over to Lowell House and ran into Buffy and we got into a fight because she thought I was snooping." Willow caught the rather arch look she was getting from Tara, "Ok I was snooping, but she was just being unreasonable about it," she continued defiantly.

        Tara sighed, "Have you gotten anything to eat yet?"

        "Not yet." Willow admitted and realized as she did so that her earlier queasiness had worn off and her stomach was growling.

        "Well you're always cranky when your blood sugar is low. Lets get you some food." Tara suggested.

        "I am not cranky." Willow responded, and then laughed as she heard just how much her tone contradicted her words, "Alright we'll go eat and then at least I can get told off on a full stomach."



        What Tara had in mind wasn't a telling off as an attempt to persuade Willow to change tack. She waited patiently as Willow disposed of a couple of sunny side up eggs and several overcooked slices of toast that made conversation difficult as Willow crunched them. "So you were going to tell me what a bad idea it was for me to go snooping around Lowell House." Willow suggested as she brushed the crumbs off her fingers with a napkin.

        Tara shook her head; "Will I don't like the Initiative anymore than you do, but we don't have any hard proof."

        "And we won't get any without some snooping." Willow's tone was conciliatory but resolute.

        Tara chose her words carefully, "I guess I'm worried that by the time we get the evidence there won't be anyone left to do anything about it."

        Now Willow was a little lost, "What exactly do you mean?"

        "When was the last time you talked with Buffy without it turning into an argument? When was the last time we included Giles or Xander in our plans? I'm afraid that when the time comes to do something there won't be a gang left to do it."

        Willow stayed silent. She hadn't really thought about it in exactly those terms but she knew Tara had a point. Giles and Xander's only recent involvement had been trying to keep the peace between her and Buffy. As for Buffy herself, well yes she was becoming totally self involved but was that really so surprising? For the first time in a long while Buffy had found some contentment, a place where she had some sort of balance between slaying and the normal life she wanted so much. What Willow was asking her to do was risk throwing that all away; hardly surprising then that Buffy preferred to ignore the uncomfortable facts about the people her lover was working with.

        Having mulled over these thoughts Willow finally answered Tara, "Maybe the best thing to do then for the sake of the big picture is to try and repair things with Buffy. Show her that this isn't about me being jealous or anything," she suggested.

        "If Buffy was on our side then she might be able to talk Elias round, we could do an awful lot more with his help." Tara pointed out.

        Willow had to concede they could, however it struck her as a tall order to talk Buffy round let alone persuade Elias to break all his military training. Regardless Tara was right; she couldn't just let the gang fall apart without putting up a fight.



        Warren sat on the wall watching the girls go by. Even if nothing else worked out this alone would make all the scheming to get here worthwhile. There was a student ID in his wallet along with a driver's license and a few bucks, all courtesy of the Initiative. In theory he could just walk away and vanish, a slight itching in his left forearm reminded him of the hole in that theory. If he wandered more than one hundred and fifty metres from his current location every alarm in the Initiative would go off. Warren was sure Brown would have preferred to throw him into one of the containment cells they kept for the live demons. That would however have required the scientist telling the goon squad the whole story about Warren and Brown apparently liked to keep them in the dark as much as possible, hence the issuing of a phony ID and his freedom to roam, all be it in a limited fashion.

        As he sat watching the world go by Warren noticed a couple of girls walking along with their arms around one another in a manner that seemed more than friendly. This grabbed his prurient attention and he couldn’t help but notice that the little red head looked rather like Rosenberg. Warren froze; it was Rosenberg. Somewhere in the back of his mind Warren had assumed that Willow would be far from Sunnydale, off at some fancy east coast university and laughing at the image of him rotting in a prison cell. Instead here she was still in Sunnydale; maybe things are going my way, Warren decided, he had assumed his chance for revenge against Willow lay somewhere in the distant future. Now it looked like he was going to get everything that was coming to him all at once.

        Willow had the strong sensation she was being stared at and looked around; and then did it again as what she saw was impossible. Try as she might Willow couldn't make it go away, Warren Mears was sitting on wall staring straight at her. Tara suffered a similar reaction and she could feel Willow's anger rising. She made no attempt to stop Willow as she marched towards him. "How the hell did you get here?" she demanded.

        "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Warren replied smugly.

        "If you've escaped this is a pretty stupid thing to do." Tara pointed out, hoping to get the nuisance to provide some useful information.

        Warren shook his head and his smug grin broadened at Tara's naiveté, "Sorry but I'm totally legit. I have friends in high places now; well low places really," he teased.

        If he thought he was being obscure Warren practically fell off the wall at Willow’s next question, "The Initiative? You're working for the Initiative?" she practically screamed at him. Warren had no answer to that and he didn't get a chance to ask how Willow knew about this so-called secret organization. Tara and her were vanishing into the distance before he recovered enough to talk.



        Elias was tired. Buffy hadn't allowed him much sleep the previous night, which he wasn't complaining about, and he had spent his morning in a meeting with Brown, which he definitely was complaining about. Brown seemed determined to drown him in bureaucracy. Elias was increasingly sure that the doctor was trying to force him to request a transfer. It wasn’t going to work, Elias had far too much invested in this town to leave voluntarily and Brown had better just learn to live with that fact.

        When he spotted Willow walking towards him Elias was far from concerned, Willow had always been friendly except for that first time they had met in Buffy's room and she had levitated him against a wall. There was a powerful sense of deja vu therefore as before he could offer a word of greeting Willow gestured with her hand and he was pinned to a wall unable to move so much as a finger. "How could you bring him back here?" Willow raged.

        Elias was not easily prone to fear, he couldn't however prevent a cold shiver going down his spine as he looked into Willow's eyes and saw two pools of darkness. He answered her very slowly and carefully, "Willow please believe me when I say that I have no idea what you are talking about."

        Tara had arrived next to Willow and spoke to her urgently, "Honey remember Elias is one of the good guys."

        Elias was grateful for the intervention and extremely relieved as Willow's eyes returned to their normal hue and he found he was free to move again, "At the risk of being hit with a fireball would you mind explaining what that was in aid of?"

        "Warren Mears," she replied bluntly.

        "What about him?" Elias wasn't looking to be smashed into the wall again; neither though was he going to discuss every little detail of Initiative business with outsiders.

        "Why would you bring someone like him in on your big secret?" Willow demanded.

        Tara was calmer but just as emphatic as she added, "He isn't someone you can trust."

        "All I know about Mears is that he's a new technician assigned to work with Brown, what else is there I should know about him?"

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the

person you l-love

Willow: I am

The Bronze had taken to opening at Saturday lunchtime to serve up coffee and pull in few more dollars to pay the rent and dispose of the previous nights leftovers. It attracted those people who had nowhere better to go and some people who worked in the area. Thus the Saturday crowd was a mix of slackers and workers. Naturally they tended to congregate at opposite ends of the establishment, leaving a broad no mans land in the middle.

        Taking a table in this empty zone suited Willow's mood. There had been nowhere on campus she had wanted to be after the run in with Warren and Elias. The presence of Warren in the place she had come to think of as her own had upset Willow more than she could have imagined. Tara placed a hot chocolate down in front of Willow and took the seat opposite her. "Are you feeling any better?"

        "Less angry more sorry about what I did to Elias." Willow answered.

        "You did get a pretty big shock, we both did. I'm just not as expressive as you are." Tara suggested.

        "Actually I remember you getting pretty expressive with a sorcerer one time." Willow couldn't help smiling at the memory.

        Tara took Willow's hands in hers, "Well nobody messes with my girl."

        Willow could feel all the badness drain out of her and the strength flow in at the contact with Tara. She knew Tara was part of her; it just didn't hurt to be reminded of it from time to time. "So what are we going to do now?" Tara asked quietly.

        Willow replied carefully, "Well your original plan was pretty good, try and talk the others round."

        "You mean it was pretty good until we ran into Warren." Tara suggested.

        Willow answered hurriedly, trying to spare Tara's feelings, "Baby the Initiative is pretty sneaky and unscrupulous. You put it together with Warren and it's got disaster written all over it."

        "So we can't afford to do this the careful way?" Tara wondered.

        Willow looked very nervous, "I don't think so baby."

        Tara chewed her lip for a moment, "I agree."

        Willow was taken aback, "You do?"

        Tara nodded, "I wish we could get everyone to work together but I have this feeling of impending disaster I can't shake. We need to do something to head it off, and we need to do it now."

        Willow was greatly relieved to have Tara's full support, not to mention getting an all together different kind of sensation from Tara's take charge attitude. "So I guess that just leaves the question of exactly what we do."

        "The big problem is still the Initiative. I mean without them Warren is just a nuisance."

        Tara's suggestion echoed Willow's own thoughts as she continued, "We need to get hard evidence, something that will get the others to support us." Willow was already pretty clear on what that meant; she just wanted to see if Tara would follow her reasoning that far.

        "I guess we can't just pin Warren to a wall and interrogate him?" Tara offered doubtfully.

        Willow shook her head, "The weasel would tell us everything except the truth."

        "Well then I guess the only place to get hard evidence about the Initiative is inside the Initiative itself." Tara wished she could think of something a little less dangerous, but the logic seemed inescapable.

        Willow nodded; glad they were both thinking along the same lines, "So all we have to do is figure out how to break into an underground government fortress, how hard can that be?" Willow asked with a theatrical shrug.



        The motel manager was a happy man. His establishment hadn't been this full in a long time. In fact if he was honest it had never been as busy. The guests had flowed in over several days, arriving in pickup trucks, minivans, RV's and even a couple of Humvees. Their taste in vehicles would have told the manager that they were a group even without their common grizzled appearance and gruff manner. The manager didn't care; they were far from the strangest guests he had ever had and as long as they paid up and didn't leave any strange stains on the carpet he was happy.

        Cutler stepped down from the cab of the truck and looked around. The weather was pleasant and the sky was blue, none of which improved Cutler's mood. It just seemed typically Californian, soft, comfortable, and complacent. If these west coast liberals would keep their immorality and softness to themselves then Cutler could have accepted that, barely. Of course they weren't prepared to do that, they used their Hollywood machine to undermine the moral fabric of the whole nation. If it were in his power he would shutdown the whole of network television and put them to some useful work. He shook off the thought; there was a long way to go before they reached that day.

        As he stood in the motel car park Cutler spotted Patterson approaching him. Since the doomed raid on the army base had removed Cutler’s cousin from the chain of command Patterson had taken the number two spot. Cutler knew Patterson was capable, it was more his dedication and ambition that concerned Cutler. "What made you choose this place?" Cutler asked without any preamble.

        "It seemed a lot less conspicuous than a garage or warehouse." Patterson replied evenly.

        "Unless the staff starts to take an interest in what we are doing."

        Patterson was disdainful, "They barely take an interest in changing the bedclothes let alone any of the guests."

        Cutler grunted by way of approval and changed topic, "So is this a wasted journey or has our contact managed to deliver on his promises?" he now enquired.

        Again Patterson kept an even tone, "He is in place and he's in contact. He has a very low opinion of their computer security."

        Cutler waved his hand impatiently, "His opinions don't interest me. He was very sure that there would no problems taking the army base. I would prefer it if we had one of our own people on the inside."

        "Well we don't." Patterson stated bluntly, "And under the circumstances I think we can depend on the contact." he saw Cutler looking at him doubtfully, "Oh it isn't that I have any great faith in his loyalty. It's simply that if he was going to sell us out he wouldn't be anywhere near Sunnydale while he did it."

        Cutler nodded to indicate his reluctant acceptance of Patterson's reassurance and walked towards the motel reception. As Cutler went into motel the shadow put aside the fragments of Patterson's personality. Again it considered whether it wouldn't be better to be rid of Cutler and simply take command of this group directly. The problem was that there was no guarantee they would follow Patterson if it did so. As galling as it was to play second fiddle to a mortal it would have to bear it for now and wait for the right moment to correct matters. A small amount of humiliation had to be borne in pursuit of the greater goal, but only a small amount.



        The crypt was trashed once again. The Initiative seemed to have decided that if they couldn't find a demon they would settle for wrecking its home, "Bleedin' wankers." Spike muttered. Cursing them was about all he could do to the Initiative. Their little experiment in better living through brain surgery had left Spike with relatively few sources of amusement, cursing, beating up his fellow demons and taking the piss out of the Slayer and her mob. It was poor compensation for a creature that had once been the terror of the undead and the scourge of slayers.

        The battered door to the crypt creaked open and Spike tensed, fearing that the Initiative had decided to come back and finish the job. It was only a very marginal relief to see Willow and Tara standing there instead. Before his surgery Spike would have been delighted to have two such tender morsels turn up on his doorstep. Of course even if he had been at one hundred percent fighting efficiency the odds were that he would a cloud of ash the moment he laid hands on one of these two. That was the problem with witches; a Slayer might give you a good workout before you finished things. With a witch they just waved their hands around and you weren't there anymore; where was the fun in that?

        "What happened Spike?" Tara asked kindly.

        "Had a cheese and wine party and it got a little rowdy. What does it bleeding look like?" Spike had no use for Tara's pity.

        A large splinter from a broken chair rose from the floor and hovered near Spike's chest, "Be nice Spike." Willow warned him.

        "Bollocks, you aren't going to stake me." Spike sneered.

        Willow nodded, "Probably not," she let the splinter edge closer to Spike, "Unless I get really upset. Then anything could happen."

        "Uh honey, remember why we're here." Tara reminded her softly.

        Willow let the splinter drop and closed the crypt door, "I'm guessing your party guests were all wearing combat boots and carrying big guns."

        "Probably," Spike conceded, "Still don't see why you would be so concerned about my well being."

        "I just thought you might be interested in getting some payback from the Initiative." Willow commented.

        "What, you're offering to help me get some?" Spike asked sarcastically.

        "More or less." Tara agreed.

        Spike was dumbfounded, "I thought the Slayer was all cozy with the commando boys."

        "This isn't about Buffy." Willow stated, a lot more harshly than she had intended.

        "Oh I see; had a bit of a tiff have we? Not keen that the Slayer's got some new playmates?" Spike was smirking now.

        "Look Spike we want to bring down the Initiative. If that doesn't interest you then we'll just go." Tara said firmly.

        Spike knew his bluff had been called. As much he enjoyed the verbal sparring he truly wanted to make the soldier boys pay for what they had done to him, "Alright what is you want?"

        Willow adopted a business like tone, "I want to know everything you know about the laboratory, and especially about how you got out of there."







Despite his best efforts Elias had not been able to pin down Brown all afternoon and talk to him. It was perverse; at any other time Elias would have been happy to stay clear of the scientist. As soon as he actually needed Brown the man suddenly became 'too busy to meet with him'.

        Rounding a corner Elias spotted Warren looking a little lost; let's see what he's got to say for himself, Elias decided. "Looking for something?" Elias asked pleasantly enough.

        Warren jumped about a foot in the air, "No, no, I was just getting to know the place," he turned to walk away and found that Elias had stretched out an arm to lean against a wall, effectively blocking his path.

        "Speaking of getting to know the place I understand Sunnydale is your home town." Elias commented.

        Warren answered with a noncommittal, "Yeah."

        "Well maybe you could fill me about local places of interest. You know night life, tourists attractions, the local jail." Elias' tone hardened with this last part.

        Warren gulped but managed to force out a reply, "Look whatever you heard was exaggerated. I Just got in way over my head, fell in with the wrong crowd."

        "A street gang is the wrong crowd, robbing an army base is a whole different league." Elias pointed out menacingly.

        "I didn't rob anywhere," Warren protested and began to pull himself together, "Besides it doesn't matter. My project has top clearance and it doesn't matter what I might have done before."

        Elias stared at Warren for a moment and then lowered his arm to let Warren pass, "Guess you're right." For the moment.



        Brown had made it clear that when he retreated to his apartment on the campus he was off the clock and not to be disturbed except in the event of dire emergency. He was far from pleased therefore to have Elias Carter hammering on his front door. "What are you doing here?" Brown demanded testily.

        "I want to talk to you about Mears." Elias replied as he stepped into the apartment.

        "You already have his file, and this should be dealt with through channels."

        "I don't think this is a conversation you want to have on the record." Elias warned him, "I know about Mears history, he's a felon who conspired to rob a US military facility."

        Brown was annoyed, "That wasn't included in the file."

        "And that would come right at the top of my list of questions, why wasn't it?" Elias demanded.

        "It was felt that if you were privy to that information then it might be less secure than it should be." Brown explained.

        Elias had half expected that answer, which didn't make it any more pleasant to hear, "I have always maintained the security of the Initiative as my highest priority."

        "Well if we are keeping this unofficial then might I say that I question that statement? I think your highest priority is one Buffy Summers." Brown responded.

        "I keep my work and personal life separate." Elias responded uneasily.

        "And how do you do that when your girlfriend is constantly involving herself in our work?" Brown demanded.

        "Buffy has being doing this a lot longer than we have. We're the ones treading on her turf."

        "That's irrelevant, she is completely ignorant of the larger concerns." Brown explained.

        "And what is your bigger picture doctor? I was under the distinct impression we were here to stop the demons." Elias realized his slip as soon as the words left his mouth.

        Brown's eyes widened in surprise, "Demons? Demons? I think agent Carter you are rather deeper into the Summers girls delusion than I realized."

        Elias squared his shoulders, "And I think they aren't the ones deluding themselves doctor. I think they have a lot more insight than I gave them credit for."



        After Spike had decided to stop playing at being a tough guy he had proven to have quite bit of information to share. Unfortunately a lot of it was vague and opinionated, at least it was a starting point. Tara looked around for any sign that they were under observation. The area seemed clear; there was no one else around and it didn't look like there was anywhere that a camera could be concealed. Of course that didn't prove anything, she didn't know enough about all this cloak and dagger stuff to really be sure.

        Willow was pacing across the grass looking for any trace of the hatch that Spike had described. If he was playing games with them then Spike was going to be one sorry vampire. Willow was however fairly sure he was being honest, after all Spike had a huge grudge against the Initiative and helping them was the only way he was going to be able to do anything about it unless he got that chip out. Willow couldn't suppress a shiver as she thought about that device. Yes the Initiative were using it as a way to control demons, but how long would it be before they started trying it out on people?

        Scanning the ground Willow could see no sign of anything more than grass and leaves. "I guess we're going to have to go with the mojo if we are going to find this thing."

        Tara nodded and opened her shoulder bag to produce a small crystal ball. It seemed kind of passé; there were though some spells for which nothing else would do. Tara cupped her hands under the crystal while Willow stretched hers out above it and intoned a series of arcane syllables that produced a soft glow from the crystal in response.

        With magic pulsing and swirling in the glass Tara stepped away from Willow and stared into its depths. At first all she saw was the silvery light. As she walked though it slowly took on the form of a thin ribbon that twisted upwards at one particular point, "It's right here,” she announced.

        Willow walked over and looked at the patch of grass. Whoever had covered over the tunnel entrance had done an excellent job. The glass told them that the tunnel itself was still there. "If we want to get in here were going to need a shovel." Tara commented.

        Willow made a face, "We could try teleporting."

        Tara shook her head, "I think we should save that for a real emergency," she did her best not to sound panicky, "We could try a spell or a potion to open up a hole for us."

        Willow nodded, "We could go see Giles borrow a couple of books."

        "Are we going to tell him what we're planning?" Tara wondered.

        "I don't think so, once we have hard evidence we can tell him the whole story." Willow suggested. Tara nodded in agreement, the others would try to talk them out of their plan and when that failed they would insist on coming along. The last thing they needed was to drag Xander or Giles along on this; and as for Buffy well that was just not an option.



        A quick call to Giles had confirmed that he was home and that they could come over, his mock astonishment that they should call ahead not withstanding. Perhaps his enthusiastic tone should have been a warning but the pair just walked right into the ambush.

        As Willow opened the door she saw Buffy leaning against the kitchen counter. Xander and Anya were huddling in the opposite corner. "Has something happened since we called?" Willow asked.

                "I was wondering the same thing." Buffy commented dryly.

        Giles looked uncomfortable, "There has been no new problem; I'm simply concerned that an existing one has escalated out of control."

        "Meaning..." Buffy let her voice trail off.

        "Meaning that we are all kind of worried about the way things are between you and Willow." Xander explained.

        "Well I'm not so much worried as tired of listening to Xander worrying about it." Anya pointed out.

        Now they decide to intervene? Willow let her incredulous thought flow into Tara's brain.

        Let's see how it works out. Tara responded.

        "Look I haven't been looking for any fights, I just feel like I'm being asked to choose sides and no one has given me any good reason why I should have to." It was clear precisely who Buffy meant by ‘no one’. Buffy wasn't trying to be harsh; she just wanted to be honest.

        "Well maybe you just aren't willing to see why you should." Willow replied with equal bluntness. She carried on before Buffy thought of a comeback, "I don't think any organization that would have Warren Mears working for it doesn't deserve any benefit of the doubt."

        That got the others attention, "Warren is working for the Initiative? Are you sure?" Giles asked.

        "We saw him, and Elias confirmed it." Tara replied.

        That surprised Buffy, "He didn't say anything to me, but I haven't seen much of him today," her tone had softened as she absorbed the news.

        Should we tell them the rest? Tara suggested silently.

        I don't think they're ready for that. Willow let her regret flow along with the thought. If they had been having this conversation a week ago she would have been quite hopeful. Now it just seemed too late for the gang to play catch up.

        "Look Will I can ask Elias about Warren, and I can check up on him the next time I'm in the facility," Buffy hesitated and then continued, "If it's as bad as it seems then we can work on plan to take them down, ok?

        It was an olive branch and Willow knew that the idea of working against Elias must have been hurting Buffy. She walked over and hugged Buffy, "Of course it's ok Buffy, I wouldn't want to do this without you." It's just that I'm going to have to.

6. "Face Of The Enemy"

The cage that had been assembled in the Initiatives pit seemed thoroughly solid. Elias was however determinedly checking the joints that held it together. He was far from happy with this whole procedure and he wasn't planning on being held accountable for any mistakes that were made. It was obvious after the conversation at Brown’s apartment that his time with the Initiative was running out. Elias' working relationship with Brown was in tatters and truthfully Elias wasn't interested in repairing it. He felt that would require too many compromises to retain any self-respect. That almost certainly meant that he would face a choice between his career and his lover; he couldn't visualize Buffy coming away with him. She had a destiny and she couldn't turn away from it.

        "Will this thing hold up?" Warren asked as he looked at the metal framework.

        "It should hold a charging Rhino, of course since I doubt we are using a rhino for this test I don't know if that's good enough." Elias answered without hiding his irritation.

        Warren smiled. He was carrying a metal case in his hands, which he now placed on the floor and opened. "This is the accelerator," he announced proudly. The device looked like a very heavy bracelet cast in Aluminium. It was large enough to accommodate an LCD display panel and a series of controls.

        "What does it do?" Elias asked dubiously.

        As Elias had expected the tone made Warren leap to the defence of his gadget, "This little baby makes you move faster than the rest of the world, everybody else is basically standing still and you can do whatever you want."

        "Sounds like something out of a science fiction novel." Elias grumbled.

        Warren's mood remained cheerful, "Hey that's where I get all my best ideas. I'm going to build a genuine Star Trek transporter next." It took a couple of seconds for Elias to realize Warren was serious, he walked away shaking his head.



        The demon selected for the test was in Brown's terms a thoroughly boring specimen, possessed of neither special abilities nor any great intelligence. It was simply a greyish lumpen creature with small green eyes and no discernable ears or nose. It seemed somewhat passive as it was led in with its wrists bound, and a broad belt around its waist attached to which were two long poles. It was by these poles that the HST was being pulled towards the cage.

        Brown saw Warren standing with the accelerator clutched in his hands, clearly hesitant to approach the beast. One of the technicians took it and clamped it to the creatures left wrist. The band was hinged in the middle and just about snapped shut around the thick flesh. The demon didn't protest, this was mild compared to some of the treatment it had received and it was thoroughly aware of the price of resistance.

        Elias watched as the demon was maneuvered into the cage and sealed in. With the door secured the technicians began to set up cameras, both video and infrared, around the cage and Warren retreated to a computer terminal. The creature could hardly be expected, or trusted, to operate the device on its own. Elias wasn't sure that they were any better off with Warren working it by remote control.

        As Warren played with the controls nothing seemed to happen. The creature stood sullenly in the middle of the cage simply staring at the guards and technicians. Then it stirred and quite suddenly it was standing on the other side of the cage. Elias blinked; the thing couldn't have really moved that fast could it? The demon seemed equally bemused but then began to warm to the situation, zapping around the cage without any motion that the human eye could follow.

        Brown watched a slowed down playback on a monitor and could now see the perfectly ordinary movement of the HST, "Are we registering any thermal surges?" he asked.

        "No sir." The technician next to Brown responded.

        "Thermal surges?" Elias queried.

        "Apparently the previous test subjects tended to massively overheat, to the point where they literally burnt up and fell apart." The technician explained and earned himself a hard look.

        Elias wasn't a scientist, he could though follow a chain of logic, "So this doesn't work on normal creatures even though it seems to work on HST's. How exactly is this going to translate into a useful device?"

        Brown was spared coming up with an explanation by the sound of screeching metal. Everyone turned back to look at cage, one side of which was now buckled and twisted. "Switch that damn thing off!" Elias shouted.

        Warren responded by hammering at the computer keyboard, and then repeated the same sequence of keystrokes again before stepping away from the terminal, "It isn't responding I can't switch the accelerator off!" Warren’s tone was utterly terrified. The demon seemed to respond to this announcement because the buckled side disintegrated in a shower of metal. A trail of knocked over and thrown aside guards was the only clue to which way the creature had gone.

        "What the hell happened?" Elias had Warren by the collar and the blood was draining from the nerds face.

        "It was the acceleration, it must have amplified the force of the impacts." Warren explained desperately.

        Elias was no clearer for it, "How about you explain that in terms that won't get your neck snapped."

        Warren gulped, "The force of an impact depends how much an object weighs and how much it's accelerating. With time speeded up it increased the acceleration. It means it hit the side of the cage like a wrecking ball."

        Brown was now beside the pair, "That's absurd, you're describing magic not physics," he pointed out dismissively. The comment did nothing to reassure Elias.



        Buffy was stretched out on her bed just staring at the ceiling and listening to some pop station she had dialed up on her radio. The whole scene at Giles’ apartment had left her confused and unhappy. She was still unwilling to believe that Elias would actually work with someone like Warren. Of course if he were ordered to what choice would he have? And what else might he have been ordered to do that he couldn‘t, or wouldn‘t tell her about? The phone ringing was a relief, "Hey Elias I was thinking about you," she stopped talking as Elias launched into a hurried explanation of what had happened, "It broke out? Yeah, yeah I'll be over there in five. No I've no idea where Willow and Tara could be." Buffy put the receiver down and instead of the usual surge of energy that she got from the prospect of battle all she got was a powerful feeling of guilt. Everything that Willow had warned her about seemed to be coming true.



        Finding a suitable breaking and entering outfit hadn't been easy for Tara, her wardrobe wasn't big on black. In the end she had settled on a pair of ski pants and a dark grey sweater. There were a couple of drawbacks however. "Honey if you keep staring like that you are going to trip over and hurt yourself."

        Willow was unashamed, "It's not my fault. Are you sure those trousers haven't shrunk?"

        Tara ran her hand over the seat of the ski pants, which clung to the curve of her butt and left nothing to the imagination, "They are supposed to be clingy," she pointed out.

        "Uhuh." Willow replied vaguely.

        "And besides your one to talk." Tara gestured at Willow's clothing. Willow had found a tight black sweater to wear. The only pair of black trousers she could turn up were leather and looked like they had been sprayed on.

        Willow smiled and made a suggestion, "When this is over how about we each get to strip the other and then spend the day in bed?

        "Can we get another fruit basket?" Tara asked coquettishly.

        "Absolutely." Willow promised.

        A stick pushed into the dirt with a small strip of cloth wrapped around it marked the spot where the hatch had been. The sight of the marker killed off the banter between the pair. There was no getting away from what they were going to do and how potentially dangerous it was. Despite all Buffy's promises of help Willow knew they had to go through with the invasion. It was the only way to get the evidence that would truly convince the Slayer that they were right about the Initiative. Willow just didn't believe that Buffy's heart was truly in the search for the truth about the commandos.

        In addition to her sweater and trousers Willow was wearing a backpack. She now unslung it and pulled out a small bottle filled with a dark green liquid. Willow walked over to the marker and poured the liquid in a circle. As she closed the circle Willow saw the liquid flow inwards to form a disk that glistened dully in the moonlight. The marker melted into the disk and the disk began to slump downwards before it collapsed into the tunnel beneath. Willow and Tara stood next the hole and waited for the potion to dissipate. Lazy tendrils of vapour rose into the night and the pair could now see the concrete tube that led into the Initiative.

        "Point of no return." Tara reminded Willow.

        "I know." Willow answered and sat with her legs dangling over the edge of the hole. She took a deep breath and dropped the short distance into the tunnel. With her heart pounding in her chest Tara followed her into the abyss.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the

person you l-love

Willow: I am

Willow could feel the light fixtures set into the top of the tunnel. Spike had described it as brightly lit. Clearly after they sealed it up the Initiative had turned off the power. Hopefully that meant they were now completely ignoring this tunnel, especially since breaking in by conventional means would have meant a large explosion or a platoon of men with pickaxes. The Initiative's lack of understanding of magic had worked in their favour; of course if the soldier boys understood the dark forces better then Willow and Tara probably wouldn't have wound up crawling through this black tube in the first place. Why couldn't they just build a killer robot? Those we can deal with. Willow thought wistfully. She produced a small torch from the backpack and let the narrow beam play about the tunnel. Willow could have summoned a magical light but she wanted to conserve her energies in case of emergency.

        "How far do we have to crawl along this thing?" Tara whispered.

        Willow shrugged as best she could in the cramped space. "Twenty feet or so if Spike was right, couple of miles if he wasn't."

        As it happened Spike's estimate had been close and it only took a few minutes of crawling to find the intersection he had described. As soon as she spotted it Willow switched off the torch. The tunnel had been designed either for maintenance work or as some sort of emergency escape route. Either way it now connected into the facilities ventilation system and concrete gave way to metal punctuated with grilles every so often to allow the air to circulate through the Initiative. Willow had been worried that the torchlight would give away their presence but there was bright light pouring in through every grille they encountered. Willow looked out through the slotted metal looking for a likely spot to drop out and invade the Initiative proper.

        A grille overlooking the main pit in the Initiative brought Willow to a halt and Tara squeezed up next to her to peer through. It was instantly clear what had grabbed Willow’s attention. There twenty odd commandos, probably every soldier in the Initiative, stood in neat rows, armed to the teeth and dressed in full battle gear. Near the front a diminutive blonde figure stood out from the khaki crowd. From their vantage point Tara couldn't see Buffy's face but the set of her shoulders said she was tense; which was no big surprise given her surroundings. Tara saw Elias climb up on a make shift stage. She hadn't seen him look so grim since Amy had unleashed the stone demon.

        "Alright people thanks to our scientific friends this demon can move faster than you can see. We are going to setup four ambush points. We have a pheromone emitter that is supposed to be irresistible to this breed, and we have Claymores and tripwires to set up around them. You should engage with small arms only as a last resort. Let's move out."

        Willow watched as the commandos and Buffy trooped out of the facility. Should we try and help them? Tara insinuated the thought into Willow's brain.

        You mean just crawl back out and 'accidentally' run into them? Willow responded, we could but we only have one chance to do this and with all the commandos out…

        Tara knew it made sense, she still didn't feel good about leaving Buffy to face this crisis with nothing but the Initiative for support.



        Another couple of minutes crawling brought the pair to a likely looking grille, an empty room with a short drop to the floor. Willow pointed a finger at one of the bolts holding the grille in place; lightning leapt towards it and it melted away. She worked her magic on the other bolts and the grille slipped away. Before it could strike the floor Tara reached out a hand and the grille hovered in the air before gently drifting to the ground. Willow wriggled out through the opening and dropped to the floor. She winced at the shock that came up through her feet, but suffered no injury. Tara followed and she practically fell into Willow's arms as she landed. They stood quietly, straining to hear any sound that might suggest they had been discovered but the room remained quiet, "I guess they're all busy." Tara commented.

        "I guess we're just lucky." Willow replied, and the moment she did she had a bad feeling.



        Warren had been banished to a small lab in a corner of the facility to work on re-establishing control of the accelerator. Since he had never lost control in the first place that would have been a waste of effort. Warren opened his connection to the Initiative's mainframe and accessed the details of the plan to corner the demon and most importantly the exact location of the ambush positions. Warren rapidly re-encrypted the information and opened a communication line that was only supposed to be accessible to the most senior staff in the facility. It was also only supposed to connect to a single room somewhere in Washington; it certainly wasn't supposed to connect to a dingy motel on the outskirts of Sunnydale.



        The room that Willow and Tara dropped into might have been convenient for access but it was bereft of any Initiative secrets. After gingerly checking both ways along the corridor outside the room they moved out into the corridor. Again Willow itched to work the concealment glamour, and again some instinct made her hold back and preserve the energy. This corner of the facility seemed deserted, which wasn't necessarily a good thing; if there weren't many people them that might there was nothing much of interest around here. That could mean going out into the pit and even with the glamour that could be hazardous. Willow had no idea how it would work on someone watching on a monitor.

        The more she looked around the complex the more Tara was convinced that Willow was right about the Initiative. Tara's ability to read auras usually drew a blank where buildings and objects were concerned. The facility was different; there was a faint echo of energy burned into the concrete and metal. That only happened when living creatures experienced some powerful trauma that created a surge of energy that soaked into the physical fabric of a place. That kind of surge was only created by death and pain. A lot of creatures must have suffered and died in the Initiative to leave such a clear trace.

        Willow was oblivious to this psychic trail, but she did see how unhappy Tara looked; they needed to get this done quickly and get out of this place. She cautiously checked another doorway and allowed a small triumphant smile to spread across her face. The room was clearly an office of some sort and a computer terminal featured prominently in the fixtures. Willow hustled Tara inside and clicked the door shut.

        As Tara looked over her shoulder Willow powered up the computer, "Will this take very long?" Tara asked anxiously.

        "I know a couple of shortcuts." Willow reassured her. The screen was far from user friendly, simply blinking with a box in the centre demanding a password. Willow brushed her fingers over the glass. It wasn't a touch screen in the conventional sense but Willow combined a little magic with her intimate knowledge of the workings of computers and the password filled itself in, giving Willow access to the next layer of the system.

        As Willow dug down she bypassed every one of the Initiatives safeguards and laid their dirty secrets bare before herself and Tara. It was everything they had feared and a few things they hadn't even suspected. Tara wasn't sure which was the most disturbing, Professor Walsh’s project 314 with its whole Frankenstein vibe or Doctor Brown’s plan to create superhuman soldiers for the government. Both scientists shared the same basic fallacy, insisting on seeing the creatures of the underworld as just animals and blinding themselves to any annoying facts that contradicted their world view.

        "Look at this." Willow pulled up a recent file, something about 'chameleonic properties'.

        "The invisible vampire." Tara whispered as she deciphered the meaning of the text.

        Willow nodded, "They set it all up just as a diversion, a way of keeping us out of their business," she shook her head, "They did all that just to stop us."

        "I guess it's kind of a compliment." Tara didn't sound convinced.

        "Well it didn't work and we pretty much have everything we need to bury them right here." Willow patted the top of the terminal.

        "There's so much of it, can we take it all?" Tara wondered.

        Willow reached into her backpack and produced a packet of CD's, "We're going to try."

        Tara looked at the pile of discs and the long list of files on the screen; she hoped Willow wasn't being greedy. The aura of the facility felt like it was pressing in around her and she wanted out, preferably now. She needn't have worried, Willow might not have her girlfriends psychic sensitivities but she had the growing sensation that they had pushed their luck to the limit, it was time to take the info and go.



        As Willow worked her magic others were also planning to unmask the Initiatives secrets, though with far less subtlety than the witches had practiced. Cutler stood and looked at Lowell House, it was amazing to think that this was the entrance to a secret government lab. Not some bunker out in the desert or some great cave carved into a mountain but a fraternity house situated on a minor college. It hardly seemed possible; which was no doubt precisely why it had been chosen. Cutler looked to Patterson and saw that his subordinate was also staring at the building with a passionate intensity that Cutler rarely saw from him. He nodded in satisfaction; obviously Patterson appreciated just how important this mission could be, if the lab was everything it was supposed to be. Well let's find out, he decided.

8. "Descent"

It made sense for Elias to keep Buffy on his team, it would avoid the antagonism that putting her on one of the other squads would bring and he could allow for her rather free form combat techniques. Of course he knew others wouldn't see it that way; it would doubtless be said that he simply wanted to keep his girlfriend next to him. "Are you ok?" Buffy whispered.

        "Apart from looking at the end of my career in the Initiative fine." Elias explained.

        Buffy’s eyes went wide, “What do you mean?”

        “I mean that I’m tired of being out of the loop. Brown neglected to share Mears history with me and when I confronted him he made it clear that he doesn’t trust me, and he certainly isn’t telling me everything I need to know about the Initiative’s program.” Elias explained.

        Buffy had to take a deep breath, it was like was listening to Willow for a moment. Buffy had been sure that Elias wouldn’t be involved in some of the things Willow had been discussing. Now here was Elias admitting he didn’t really know what the Initiative’s goals really were. “What do you think they are doing?” She asked carefully.

        Elias shook his head, “Nothing good. There were some wild rumours about what Professor Walsh was doing. Now I don’t think they were so wild, and I’m sure Brown is after more than just beating the HST’s.”

        Buffy grimaced, “I wish you had told me that sooner, it could have saved me a lot of trouble with Willow.”

        “I wasn’t sure myself until she told me about Warren. It’s not your fault, I should have told you about my worries earlier. We’re supposed to share stuff aren’t we?” Elias suggested.

        “Hey it is my fault, Willow was trying to tell me some important stuff and I wasn’t listening.” Buffy replied glumly.

        “You’re not the only one who was ignoring awkward facts.” Elias pointed out, “Maybe you should go call Willow and Tara. I mean I think we could use the backup, and it would be a chance to try and make things right.”

        Buffy looked even more unhappy, “I called earlier, they weren’t home, or they weren’t answering the phone.”

        Before Elias could answer the radio crackled into life and Brown’s voice came on, “Agent Carter is your team in position yet?”

        “We’re at the site and we’ll have the pheromone emitter up in a couple of minutes. We could save a lot of effort if your techs could just shut this gizmo down, over.” Elias laid heavy emphasis on the last word, trying to remind Brown to follow radio protocol.

        Brown’s response was frosty, “Focus on your mission Carter, I’ll let you know if we make any progress. Brown out.”

        Elias looked at the radio, with the feeling that the end of his time with the Initiative couldn’t come soon enough



        The computer terminal didn’t have a CD writer but that didn’t stop Willow from extracting the data. She placed a disc on the desktop and then rested the fingertips of her right hand on top of it. She pressed her left hand against the monitor screen and the information began to scroll down it. Little flickers of light played over the disc. Back in her high schools days some people had snidely referred to her as a human computer. At the time the words had hurt Willow, now she couldn’t help a wry smile at how those people would react if they could see what she was doing.

        Tara divided her attention between watching the door and watching Willow work. As much as she didn’t like computers she admired the way that Willow had managed to blend her computer skills with her magic. Sometimes Willow just seemed to be running so far ahead of her that it was scary. Every time that happened though Willow would come to her and there would be warmth and passion, and Tara would know that it didn't matter. The magic wasn't the defining part of their relationship; it was just an interesting dimension.       

        Willow finished with the discs and carefully returned them to the backpack. Each disc seemed to be worse than the last; the Initiative was operating a no holds barred, ends justifies the means policy. It was one thing to slay demons but the Initiative's scientists had done things that would have made Angelus flinch. The only good news was that they appeared to have kept Elias out of the loop. Willow was relieved at that; not only because it would have been hard on Buffy but also because having someone inside the Initiative who might help them could make all the difference. Willow knew that this information was just a beginning, stopping the Initiative was going to be a whole different story.

        "I think it's time to go." Willow announced as she shutdown the terminal and got up.

        "Are we going to go crawling through those conduits again?" Tara asked.

        Willow smiled, "I don't think so. We can go out the front door now. According to the computer there's an emergency staircase close to the elevator. I figure we can just walk out of here."

        Tara was relieved that they wouldn’t have to go crawling through those cramped spaces again, but she was a little apprehensive at the idea of just wandering through the middle of the Initiative. Still after everything else they had done maybe it would be as simple as Willow made it sound.



        The facility remained as quiet as it had been when they arrived, one way and another everyone was busy trying to clear up the mess that the test had made. The couple had managed to make their way to the entrance area without incident or resorting to any magic. Willow’s sense of foreboding had begun to fade as they got near to the stairwell. She instantly regretted that because that was the moment the elevator chose to descend, “What are we going to do?” Tara asked, more or less redundantly.

        “Hide.” Willow replied equally redundantly. Willow managed to find an unlocked door and the pair dived inside just before the lift doors slid open and group of men in military gear stepped out. Willow did a double take as she saw them. They were dressed in a similar manner to the commandos but they were all too old to pass for frat boys, and there was something about them.

        “I recognize that emblem.” Tara whispered.

        Willow hadn’t really noticed but as she looked at the shoulder patches sported by several of the men she recognized it also, the militia.

        From news reports Willow had known that the militiamen caught at the army base were far from all the members of their group. She just hadn’t imagined that they would come back to Sunnydale again, and for that matter how did they even know about the Initiative? Tara nudged her in the ribs and Willow looked the other way, Warren was walking towards the militiamen and Willow suddenly knew precisely how they came to be here. Warren had invited some old friends down for a visit.



        Warren hadn’t really believed this was going to work until he saw the militia actually standing there. It should have been a relief to see the plan was working. Instead Warren just saw all the alternatives he had evaporating. There was no way out of this now. “Have you shut down the communications?” Cutler demanded without any preamble.

        “Do you see any commandos charging into bust you?” Warren didn’t like the way Cutler was treating him. He wasn’t one of Cutler’s red neck yahoos.

        “If I do, I’m going to turn you into body armour.” Cutler growled.

        “Perhaps we should do focus on the mission. As long as the external comms are down all we have to worry about are the remaining security people in here and the scientists. We need to deal with them first.” Patterson cut off the simmering argument between Cutler and Warren.

        “Right, take a squad and lock down the laboratories. I’ll take Mr. Mears with me while we round up the rest.” Warren looked far from happy with Cutler’s plan, but he wasn’t going to argue with an M-16.



        As the Militia spread out into the facility Willow pulled back from the door. “Now what do we do?” She muttered more to herself than to Tara.

        Tara supplied an answer anyway, “We go find the commandos and let them sort it out, it’s their facility.”

        That seemed reasonable to Willow, but the image of the running battle that could erupt was nightmarish, and what if it spilled out onto the campus? As she thought of that something else occurred to her, “Warren said he had shut down communications.”

        “So we can’t just call the commandos.” Tara realized, which was fine with her if it meant they had to get out of here.

        “But the commandos are military types, when they can’t call home they will come looking to find out why.” Willow explained.

        Tara still didn’t see what Willow was driving at, “Yeah so…”

        “So why haven’t they left anyone to cover the entrance?” Willow asked.

        “Because they aren’t expecting the commandos to come back.” It struck Tara like a thunderbolt.

        “It’s all one big trap.” Willow agreed, the commandos were being set up.

9. "Fallen"

Looking around the woods Buffy couldn't see the commandos, which was a good thing. Hopefully what she couldn't see the demon couldn't either. Buffy wished she could send them home, she would feel better having the gang on this. She was sure Willow could figure out a way to disable Warren's gizmo and then she could slay this thing no problem. That of course would require her to be on speaking terms with her best friend. Buffy knew that once this was over she was going to have to do some serious apologizing.

        Buffy can you hear me? Willow's voice was loud and clear in Buffy's head.

        "Not a real good time now Will." Buffy murmured; she wanted to make things right but not just now.

        I know you're looking for that demon with Warren's gadget. Willow admitted.

        There were overtones to the thought that planted a bizarre notion in Buffy's mind, "Willow where exactly are you?"

        I'm in the Initiative, Willow knew there was no point hedging now, along with Warren and a whole bunch of militia guys. Buffy they aren't expecting you to come back the whole thing is a trap. You have to get out of there!

        A whole bunch of questions had occurred to Buffy as she listened to Willow. They all evaporated as Willow made it clear that the commandos were in danger, that Elias was in danger. Buffy dropped down from the tree she was in and sprinted towards where Elias was lying. She wanted to just yell out and warn him but that might trigger the disaster she was trying to prevent. Buffy knew that she had to reach Elias and his radio so the warning could reach everyone. As she sprinted through the underbrush Buffy saw movement, a shadowy figure with a weapon. Buffy knew where the commandos were and it couldn’t be one of them, she had a sick feeling where the shooter was aiming. “Elias!” she called out and threw herself towards where he was hunkered down.

        Elias half turned as he heard Buffy calling out. He expected to see the demon approaching, instead two things happened at once; Buffy ploughed into him and he heard the sound of gunfire. He pulled himself into a roll and then scrambled to his feet and dove behind a tree.

        Bullets were whining through the air, “Damn it stop shooting you’re hitting your own people!” Someone cried out, clearly not comprehending that this was no friendly fire incident. The voice that had called out now cried out in pain. Elias knew the difference between pain and a death cry and he knew there was no point in trying to reach that man. Elias turned to Buffy to tell her they had to move and then realized she wasn’t at his shoulder. He looked to the place where she had knocked him aside and saw she was still lying there.

        Dashing to her side Elias saw the blood spreading over her shoulder and down her chest. He grabbed her wrist and felt for the pulse, it was still there, weak, but still there.

        Buffy stirred, “It’s an ambush, they’re after the Initiative,” she whispered before she passed out. Elias scooped her up and ran; he had to put as much distance between himself and the ambush site as he could, at least for now. In the back of his mind he had already made the decision, whatever happened these people were not going to leave Sunnydale alive; and if he had to kill them all personally that would be just fine.



        Willow staggered and fell against a wall, fighting down the urge to throw up, “Will? Baby? What’s the matter?” Tara was suddenly filled with panic; the colour had drained from Willow’s face and she looked like she was about to faint.

        “I felt it,” Willow responded shakily, “Oh god Tara I felt her being hit. I think she’s dying.”

        Tara didn’t need to ask whom Willow was talking about; she wrapped her arms around Willow and lowered her to the ground. There was no way they were going anywhere at the moment. It was clear that they couldn’t count on any of the commandos coming back to help them. She steeled herself to reach out with her mind, she hated telepathic contact with anyone other than Willow; there simply wasn’t a choice. Giles please you need to hear me, there’s big trouble.

        To her relief she felt Giles answering thought came through loud and clear, Tara? What’s happening?

        There was no time to exchange explanations, Tara summoned up the recollection of all that had happened and simply made Giles know what had happened.

        Good god, Giles was reeling from the shock of the psychic contact and even more so as the import of what Willow had sensed from Buffy sank in. His thoughts sounded bewildered, I don’t know what I can do.

        Call someone, the police, the army, do whatever you can Giles, please. Tara pleaded. The sound of footsteps in the corridor made her cut off the contact. She wrapped herself around Willow and willed anyone who came in not to see them.



        The militiamen with Patterson were on edge. After the staff they encountered had simply put their hands up and surrendered they had felt a sense of elation, they had captured one of the places where the New World Order worked on its plans of global domination. The euphoria had lasted until Patterson took them through the containment area. The cages weren’t as full as they had been in Professor Walsh’s time; there were however enough demons left to thoroughly unnerve the militia. The wannabe revolutionaries had simply stood gawping at the creatures, one had even knocked on a glass door with the butt of a rifle to stir up the demon inside, convinced that it had to be some sort of dummy, something to scare the common folk into doing what the NWO wanted. The sight of it slamming against the glass spitting and snarling had disabused them of that notion. Now they were moving through the facility with their weapons clenched in their hands and they were sweating despite the air conditioning.

        Patterson was not sweating of course; he had taken the detour through the containment area to evaluate the captured demons. They had been a poor bunch even compared with the mortal dross he was dragging around behind him. The shadow saw little choice but to make use of them. It could only hope that the Initiative was going to live up to the promise of chaos the shadow had seen from its vantage point.

        The lab was tucked away in a corner of the facility and connected to it by a narrow corridor. Some effort seemed to have been made to conceal this area even from most of those in the Initiative. A series of scanners were lined up along one wall, and opposite there were a series of cold cabinets, glorified fridges basically. Patterson walked over to the cabinets and opened one. It was filled with jars and bags containing bits and pieces of various demons. Patterson slammed it shut and moved to the next one. This was far more promising; it contained glass vials of clear liquid and several injector guns.

        One of the militia was peering over Patterson's shoulder, "What the hell is that crap?"

        Patterson selected among the vials and then snapped one into an injector, "Why don't I just show you?" he turned and pressed the gun to the neck of the militiaman. There was a hiss of gas as Patterson pulled the trigger. The man's eyes widened in shock, but before he could react further he swayed and then slumped to the floor. The other three men in the group hadn't seen what Patterson had done; all they saw was one of their own falling over. As they bent over to offer assistance Patterson got two more of them, exhausting the vial in the process.

        The remaining man pulled back and raised his weapon, he made the mistake of looking at Patterson to aim his shot and just for a moment he was given a glimpse of the being that controlled the militia officer. As the militiaman stood in shock Patterson simply reloaded and injected him. He looked around at the unconscious figures, there should be more than ample time before the came around. He pocketed several more vials and walked out of the lab.

10. “Winning Hand”

The footsteps in the corridor had receded without entering the room. Tara had heard a radio crackle into life, the footsteps halting and then as near as she could tell the person going back in the other direction. Safe for the moment she turned her attention back to Willow who still seemed dazed. Tara desperately wanted to offer words of comfort and sympathy; there simply wasn’t time for that now. They had to leave this place as soon as possible and find some help, at the very least rally the gang to try and bottle up these militiamen so the proper authorities could deal with them. “Willow honey we need to pull ourselves together and get out of here. Please get up. We can’t help Buffy from in here,” she pleaded.

        That got through, “You’re right we need to get out and then we can make these people pay.”

        Tara didn’t like the way Willow said that, “We have to be careful Will, we don’t want to get into the middle of a gun battle.”

        “Don’t worry I’m not going to start anything until I get a couple of books from the Magic Box.” Willow agreed in an icy tone.

        Tara was still far from happy, but she wasn’t the one who had felt her best friend take a bullet. She wasn’t going to stand against Willow when she went after them; the best Tara hoped for was that she could restrain Willow from anything too extreme.

        With Tara’s hand firmly grasped in hers Willow led the way into the corridor. It had taken a few moments for her to summon up the concentration to work the concealment glamour. When Buffy had been shot the pain and terror had been beyond anything Willow had ever experienced. Then when Buffy’s mind slipped away from her telepathic contact it had been ten times worse. If Buffy really was gone, if she was dead then Willow was going to make the people who did it pay. She knew that it wouldn’t bring Buffy back, and it wouldn’t make things right; however she knew it simply had to be done.

        At the back of her mind a thought nagged at Willow. The future image of Elias and Buffy dancing together while she sat with Tara and Dawn. If Buffy was gone then that meant she had somehow destroyed that future, which left Willow with nothing to look forward to except guilt and loss. That bleak prospect left Willow feeling cold right down to the centre of her bones.



        The sight of a combat boot sticking out from around a corner brought the couple to a halt. Despite the spell neither girl could overcome the instinct to stop. As Willow looked again at the boot she realized that it was projecting at an odd angle. As angry and miserable as she was Willow couldn’t suppress her natural curiosity. She pulled Tara to the corner and cautiously peered around it. For a moment she was surprised not to see anything, then it occurred to her to look down. The militiaman was sprawled on the concrete floor with his feet sticking out past the wall. Willow bent to examine him. There was no blood, no bruises, and no sign at all of what had knocked the man out.

        “Do you think the commandos have made it back? Maybe Buffy managed to warn them?” Tara suggested hopefully.

        Willow tugged at something lying under the man, and managed to draw out the barrel of a rifle, “I don’t think the commandos would just leave him with a gun.” She wasn’t sure how but Willow knew things had just gotten far worse. “We need to get out of here, quickly.”

        The pair turned and walked quietly towards the stairwell, just in time for the sound of footsteps to ring out once again. They could simply have gone back to the room they had hidden in but both of them were tired of this place and they wanted out. They pressed themselves against the wall to leave as much room as possible for whoever was approaching to pass by and trusted in the glamour to protect them. Tara had a hard time not letting out a little gasp of breath as Doctor Brown emerged with one of the militia they had seen at the elevator earlier beside him. The man had Brown’s right arm twisted up behind his back clearly putting the scientist in considerable pain. Tara found her normal deep reserves of compassion quite empty where the scientist was concerned. He had brought down this disaster down on himself and on her friends, a little suffering might teach him a lesson.

        Patterson walked past Willow and Tara with his prisoner and kept going for ten paces before he stopped and turned to face the girls, painfully jerking Brown around with him, “I’m disappointed, is that little glamour the best you can come up with?” he asked contemptuously.

        Willow tried to convince herself that it was some sort of bluff, the reference to a glamour however and the way the militiaman was locking eyes with her told her differently. Willow glanced to Tara who looked just as bemused as she did. With an unspoken agreement they let the glamour drop.

        “That’s better, now we can talk face to face properly.” Patterson explained.

        There was something in the cold voice that struck Willow as familiar, “Who are you?”

        Tara said nothing, she was simply looking closely at the aura that surrounded Patterson and saw a full mixture of human emotions. There was something else besides, something lurking inside the human essence, something that she definitely recognized.

        Patterson saw the reaction in Tara’s expression, “Ask your lover; she remembers me even if your vision is too limited.”

        Willow looked at Tara, who whispered just two words, “The shadow.”

        At the sound of those words something dark started to ooze out of Patterson and surround him with a translucent black border. As this happened Patterson released Brown who pulled himself against the wall, appalled at the sight.

        “I have neither forgiven nor forgotten what you did to me witches. I don’t suppose you would care to offer me the crystal by way of recompense for your past actions?” Patterson asked, any shred of humanity drained from the voice.

        “What do you think?” Willow responded. She was readying herself to release an energy bolt.

        Patterson shook his head, “I really didn’t think so, I‘ll just have to continue with my current plan.” he raised the shock rifle he was holding and fired. The energy struck both girls and they shrieked with pain before they slid to the ground. Willow desperately tried to reach out with her mind before the blackness overwhelmed her.



        The shadow drew itself back in and became contained within Patterson once more. He turned to the cowering Brown and grabbed him by the collar, “You will study them,” he commanded.

        “Study them?” Brown croaked.

        “Those two thwarted me once and I will know why. You will scan them, take samples, dissect them if you must but you will give me answers.” Patterson commanded.

        Brown knew that it could take weeks even if he had any idea what he was looking for, however he also knew what was likely to happen if he explained that.



        Elias looked down at Buffy, he had done his best to stop the bleeding. Looking at the wound he could tell it wouldn’t be enough. Buffy needed a hospital and she needed it now. All his efforts to contact any of the other teams had drawn a blank, they were either out of action or the comms were completely jammed. It didn’t matter, he was alone in the woods getting to watch the woman he loved dying. As absurd as it was this was the first moment that he had admitted it to himself, he loved Buffy Summers. Hell of a time to figure that out Carter.

        There was a sudden feeling of pressure in his temples, as though something was trying to shove itself into his brain. He had no idea what it was but Buffy began to stir, reaching for consciousness and murmuring, “Willow.” The she passed out again. As Buffy uttered the name Elias knew that what he had felt was some sort of attempt at telepathic contact, and it had been abruptly cut short.

        Before he could contemplate what that meant for his and Buffy’s situation there was a crackling like static electricity in the air. Elias turned just in time to see the air fold up and then unfold again, leaving behind a female figure standing in the grass. “You’re in a lot of trouble Carter, just as well I’m here to help isn’t it?” she announced. Elias went for his sidearm; before his hand got more than half way the girl had intercepted it and proceeded to shake it. “Hey I’m on your side Elias.”

        You know my name, how about telling me yours?” he asked suspiciously, unable to do much else just at the moment.

        The girl nodded and smiled, “fair enough, you can call me LJ.”

        The girl’s positive attitude must be infectious because Elias found himself feeling quite unreasonably optimistic.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the

person you l-love

Willow: I am

Sheridan,



This is intense. I am ready to see how you resolve this.

Tara: My heart doesn't stutter.


Tara: Willow, I got so lost.

Willow: I found you. I will always find you.

Edited by: The Rose24  at: 11/12/02 8:07:59 pm