I was watching Love Never Dies (Andrew Lloyd Webber) and couldn't help but draw parallels and here is the result of Devil Take the Hindmost...

AU future snapshot. Don't ask me how this became a thing in my mind, but it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense without a little back-story- Tara left after the memory spells. She met Charlotte and for a while they had a happy family. Thirteen years in the future and Tara's bad relationship decisions are coming for round two.

Charlotte raised her hand signaling the bartender for another scotch. The bartender ignored the already inebriated woman further aggravating the already disgruntled woman. She looked back to her challenger at the pool table, only to find it empty and her chance at double or nothing, gone. She slammed her palm against the sticky counter; the bartender simply walked into the back room leaving her in an empty bar. Not too strange for … what time was it ...11 am, she mused briefly. A buzzing noise penetrated her mental fog, Tara calling. Calling to nag her; insinuating problems that don't exist. She's so touchy, that damn ex of hers made her over-sensitive to having a good time. That bitch who drove Tara away by abusing her and then had the gall to threaten her. Really who threatens to skin someone alive? "I'm not afraid of her!" she shouted to the empty room. "I've bested her before!"

"Not afraid of me you say?" the dark voice questioned from the hall. "Stay back, or I'll kill you!" The newcomer chuckled, "you say you've beaten me before, but that was a long time ago. And we were playing a different game." Slowly the witch advanced on the obviously fearful woman, the scent of it intoxicating. "Look at you, deep in debt, stinking drunk, pitiful. Shall we two make a bet? Devil take the hindmost."

Charlotte cringed from the sight of the woman, jet black hair, eyes without whites and face riddled with dark veins. "Look at you, foul as sin. Hideous, horrible. Call the stakes, deal me in. Devil take the hindmost."

"Our Tara, shall choose tonight. Is she yours or mine?" "Let her choose."

"If she casts, you lose tonight. You leave from here, disappear." "Fine." Charlotte pushed herself from the stool, suddenly wondering if her wife's fascination with Wicca wasn't a little more real than she thought.

"And if she won't, if I win?" "All your debts wiped away."

"You think you've fixed the dice; well, I will gladly roll. I'll bet against the house, I'll even double down. Fortune's on my side. I won her long ago; I won her from you then. I'll beat you even now. I will win her back again." "Devil take the hindmost."

"Now Tara shall choose at last, is she yours or mine? We've a daughter, our bond's secure." The dark woman smiled cruelly and pushed to the other side of her foe, forcing Charlotte to spin around and catch herself against the bar. "Are you sure? Are you so sure? Such a child, strange to see, talented, magickal. Is she more you or me? Which one do you find most?"

"Deal the cards." "I call your bluff." "Devil take the hindmost."

Willow strode to the entrance and paused to turn back. "She walks, you leave together. Pockets full, debts paid. She casts, you leave alone. Devil take the hindmost." She was gone.

I have a whole back-story to how Tara and Willow got here, as well as the resolution. Let me know if you would want me to put pen to paper on it. Also have a snapshot for "Beauty Underneath" I may post.