DISCLAIMER: Buffy-The Vampire Slayer and all related characters are the property of Mutant Enemy Productions, Inc., Sandollar Television, Kuzui Enterprises and Twentieth Century-Fox Television. No copyright infringement is intended. This work of fiction is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. The story and all original characters are the sole property of the author and may not be used or archived without permission.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, things you need to know before you start reading: First, this is a direct sequel to Witching Anya, so if you haven't read that yet go back to my author page and do so. I'm not saying you'll be hopelessly lost, but why take chances? Next, I'm essentially telling two stories this time so I'm going to be switching off between Willow and Anya's perspectives. For the easily confused (of which I'm a member) each chapter starts with the name of the POV character. Also, I'm serious about the rating in the summary so if you're a young'un, be on your merry way. Your spoilers are Doppelgangland, Triangle, Seeing Red and the last few eps of S6, Selfless, You're Welcome (from Angel), the finales of both Buffy and Angel, and of course the aforementioned fic. Your pairings are Willow/Anya, Willow/Kennedy and hints of Willow/lotsa other people (yes, Willow gets very lucky in this fic).

And finally, on a teeny personal note, the last time I posted a sequel to WA a while back, one of the comments I received was a recommendation that I not use my Bad Willow character anymore because she was a little too - I quote - "creepy." Back then I thought the reviewer might have had a point and I took it down. This one's goin' up and stayin' up, and it features Bad Willow in all her glorious creepiness. If you find this a problem, stop reading now and go back to the BTVS page where you'll find plenty of nice, normal Spuffy fics to read. (Really. I checked.) This story's for the oddballs among us.

RAISING ANYA,

FACING WILLOW

By Darrin Colbourne

Willow

It takes a moment for me to get my bearings when I wake up. It's only been four days since Kennedy and I moved into our new apartment in Cartegena, so I guess a little lingering homesickness for our old place is understandable, but flexibility is the watchword in our ongoing war against Evil (Xander has started calling it the "War on Demonism") and Kennedy and I are needed here in Spain to organize a new group of Slayers, so we'll just have to get used to our new home.

Being with Kennedy makes it easier. Just before I get up I take a moment to admire her. She's fast asleep next to me. She has the cutest little snore - yes, she snores. Don't let her tell you otherwise. It's like this kitten-sleeping-in-a-basket snore. It makes me smile and brush some of her long dark hair aside so I can give her a quick peck on the cheek. She smiles in her sleep, which gives me just enough incentive to get up and start the day.

You would think, with everything I've seen since I first met Buffy all those years ago, I would have learned how to expect the unexpected, but I never have. It's because normalcy is so seductive. When the world isn't ending, when we're not running for our lives, you can't help but be complacent. It happens to me all the time, especially in times like this, when I'm in the bathroom just doing all the typical things I always do when I'm getting ready to face the world. I'm certainly not expecting an apocalypse, or any other kind of certain doom. Right at this moment all I'm doing is brushing my teeth, staring into the mirror at my reflection as I brush up and down, back and front, paying special attention to my canines and molars. I look away only long enough to spit and rinse, then turn back to the mirror to check out my handiwork, smiling wide and pretty and showing off my pearly whites. After a second my reflection waves at me. I wave back, then reach out to open the mirror and get something from the cabinet behind it. Only when I'm trying to decide which deodorant to wear does it hit me:

My reflection waved at me?

I waved back??

I close the mirror and stare into it again. This time I'm not smiling, but my reflection has a soft, mischievous smile on her face, which would be unsettling enough, but she's also wearing a black athletic jersey, which is totally nothing like the pink bathrobe I currently have on. She does get closer as I lean in to get a better look at her, but she ends the charade when we're looking each other in the eye.

"Hey, Willow," she says with my voice. "I'm baaaaack."

I surround the mirror with the strongest force field I can conjure as I back away in terror, then I encase the bathroom in a second force field as I back all the way into the bedroom. When I'm sure the fields are secure I turn to the bed…only to find her laying on my side of it cradling a still-sleeping Kennedy in her arms.

She shakes her head. "Really, Girl Scout," she says, "as if those puny barriers would actually have held me."

I don't know what to say to that, simply because my mind is stuck on the thought that she is me, that it's really me laying in bed wearing black workout clothes and cradling Kennedy and playing with her hair. Of course, deep down I'm sure it's not me, which makes the situation that much more terrifying. I've met my doppelgangers before, and the one thing they always seem to have in common is their evil streak. Once I remember that, a response comes easily. "Don't hurt her."

The other me smiles. "Oh, don't worry. I wouldn't dream of hurting little Reagan here…"

"It's Kennedy." The correction is automatic, something for my subconscious mind to do while my conscious mind works frantically to find a way to get Ken and myself away from here.

Bad Willow grins. "Right," she says. "Anyway, hurting her wouldn't be any fun, and right now she's much more useful to me alive and in my arms." With that she lowers her head and kisses Kennedy the way I did before. This time it wakes Kennedy up. She stirs and huddles closer to Bad Willow before she opens her eyes halfway, then she looks up into the evil twin's face. "Hey, baby," my reflection whispers to her. "Welcome back to the land of the living." Kennedy smiles and stretches up for a kiss on the lips.

"No!" I say through clenched teeth just before their mouths make contact. That wakes Kennedy up all the way. She turns her head in my direction and her eyes widen as she sees me standing at the foot of the bed, then stay wide when she turns back to see me holding her in my arms.

There are agonizing seconds as she looks into Bad Willow's eyes before it occurs to her to move. When it finally hits her she pushes out of Bad Willow's grip and slides out of bed and stands to the side of it, just staring at my twin, then she turns to me with a look of absolute confusion on her face, then she turns back to Bad Willow. "Who the fuck are you?!" She says.

Bad Willow sighs. "What is it about me? Did you see something in my eyes? Is there something about my scent? Or, is it just that little cramp you Slayers get when something evil is all over you?"

Kennedy just stares at her again, then she turns back to me and shrugs. She's begging me for an explanation with her eyes.

I can't help her right now. I have to focus on my twin. "What do you want?" I say more forcefully now that Ken's out of reach.

Bad Willow gets out of the bed on the other side. "What do you think I want?" She says as she starts to approach me. "What is the one thing I have ever wanted from this backwater reality, the one thing you and your cronies couldn't just let me enjoy in peace?"

I wait until she's standing right in front of me before I answer. "She's dead."

She smiles again. "I know that. I intend to rectify that situation. You're going to help me."

"Never."

"That's odd…I don't recall saying you had a choice in the matter."

"I'll do whatever it takes to send you back where you came from."

"Oh, it'll take a lot more than you've got, wanna-be."

"I beat you before, and I've learned a lot since we last met."

"As I recall, sweetie, ya didn't beat me without help…and last I checked, she's dead too. Besides that, no matter how much you think you've learned, it's nowhere near as much as I have. So let's try this again: I'm going to bring Anya back. You're going to help me do it, willingly, or I will kill everything that moves in this reality."

"You've made that threat before."

"It worked before. I always go with what works."

"It only worked because Anya was willing to give herself to you to save the rest of us."

"Which brings me back to why I'm here. I will not leave until Anya is alive and safe in my arms and tells me to leave. If you try to keep that from happening I will kill this world" - she points to Kennedy - "starting with her, and when she's dead I'll destroy this city and every other city you Scoobies and your Slayers are in, and I'll do it 'Independence Day' style, since few things in existence appeal more to me right now than the idea of all of you dying in a rain of fire!" There's a look of rage in her eyes as she delivers that line, then she walks past me and toward the bathroom. "I'll be back in ten minutes," she says. "You have that long to come to your senses and realize helping me is your only option."

She disables my force field with a snap of her finger and walks into the bathroom. I can't bring myself to do anything but watch, but Kennedy, God love her, runs in after her. The Slayer comes out a second later. "She's gone!"

I sigh. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. "It doesn't matter. She'll be back in ten minutes, just like she said."

Ken still looks confused. "That was her, wasn't it? The one you told me about?" I nod. "Not the vampire one?" I shake my head. "The one that's totally schoolgirl obsessed with Anya?" I nod again. Kennedy looks back into the bathroom, shakes her head and says, "That is fucked up on so many different levels!" I'm smiling when she turns back to me. "Okay, but you can beat her, right? You said you beat her last time. That was true, wasn't it?"

My smile fades immediately. "It is, but so is what she said. Anya found a weapon she was vulnerable to, and Tara got it to me while we were fighting…"

"…and Tara's dead." Ken says softly. I nod again and lower my head as thoughts of Tara fill it. I try hard not to let the memories overwhelm me. I have someone new to fight for and not much time to do it.

"We have to call…" Someone is apparently reading my mind. Just before I can finish my cell phone rings. I go over to the nightstand to get and answer it. "Hello? Buffy! I was just about to call you! Guess who decided to show my face around here again!"

"Way ahead of you, Will," Buffy says. "Have you looked out your window yet?"

I turn toward the bedroom window. Only then does it register that it's a little darker than it should be for this time of morning. I run over and look out and up, hoping against hope that the shadow I'm seeing is just a really big cloud. The thing in the sky is really big all right, but it's no cloud.

I run out of the apartment and head outside to get a better look. Kennedy is right behind me. Neither of us bothers to dress because it only barely registers to us that I'm only in a robe and Ken's only in her panties. No one else notices because the attention of everyone on the street and looking out of their windows is fixed on the sky.

Hovering silently miles above Cartegena is a massive flying saucer, all gray and menacing and pushing the clouds out of its way. It looks centuries old, but that may simply part of its design. Another part of its design leaves no doubt who it belongs to. Carved into the underside and visible only in shadow is the image of a tree superimposed over a pentagram.

"'…and I'll do it 'Independence Day' style…'" I whisper.

"What was that, Willow?" Buffy says.

I forgot that I was talking to her on the phone. "Is there one of these over London?" I ask. That's where Buffy and Giles are.

"Yes, and ones over New York, St. Petersburg and Brussels."

New York: Faith and Robin Wood; St. Petersburg, Russia: Xander and Dawn; Brussels, Belgium: Andrew; plus all of their attendant Slayers.

"First thing," Buffy says, "we have to get out of these cities and someplace more remote. If she's only targeting us…"

"She won't stop with us." I say.

"It still helps if she's starting with us. We can get away from the populated areas and get to some desert or mountain region, and then…"

"We only have ten minutes," I say.

There's a long silence, then Buffy says, "Okay…we're a little pressed for time, but that's nothing new."

"She wants Anya."

"That's nothing new either. Did you tell her Anya was dead?"

"I did. I don't think she's going to let a little thing like that stop her. She wants me to help her bring Anya back."

"I hope you said 'no'."

"I did, but I may not have that option when she comes back."

"You can't help her, Will, no matter what happens. Just say 'no' again when she gets back. Hopefully by then we'll have found a way to stop her and her saucers."

"What if we can't stop them, Buffy? What then?"

"If you try," my voice says in my ear, "and if you refuse me again, I'll just have to go with my contingency plan. I'll destroy your world, and use the souls of everyone I kill as fuel to give me the power to raise Anya on my own."

There's a long silence, then Buffy says, "Willow, please tell me that was you, and that you're kidding."

Bad Willow answers before I can. "You're wasting time, Slayer. You should be spending this time trying to convince your Willow to do what I want. Tick-tock, wanna-be."

There's more silence, then Buffy says, "Will?"

"It's me, Buffy." I say.

I can hear her breathe a sigh of relief, then she says, "Get ready to work. Giles and I will try to figure out some way to stop her, or at least get everybody in one spot before the deadline. If she shows up again in the meantime…don't hesitate. Throw everything you got at her and keep throwing until she falls."

"Sure," I say, wondering how big a waste of time that would be. Buffy hangs up before we can talk more about it, so I turn off my phone and put it in my robe pocket, then turn to Kennedy. That's when I notice my girl is on the street topless. I get her in an embrace and cover her up as best I can. "Let's get back inside," I whisper.

We're dressed and ready for anything five minutes after we get back inside. I spend the rest of the intervening time trying to remember every spell I used against Bad Willow last time we fought. It isn't easy. I was caught up in a haze of dark magicks at the time. It seemed like the only way to beat her, and even then I was only holding my own until Tara threw me the dagger. I wish I had that dagger now. It worked so well it was like the thing was meant to kill her. If we could get it somehow, or find the same dagger in our universe, we might have a chance.

Kennedy doesn't help my meditations any. She's a bundle of questions, eager for details that I can't completely supply. Most of what I know of our enemy comes second-hand from what Anya told us after we rescued her. The rest is a blur, vague impressions of when she attacked us at Buffy's house in Sunnydale and when we were fighting in Willowcoven. None of it is all that helpful. None of it gives me a solution to this problem.

All too soon the deadline comes. Thirty seconds before the ten minutes is up I gear myself up to hit Bad Willow with everything I can think of. It won't stop her, but I'm sure it will throw her off-balance long enough for Kennedy and me to escape. I'm confident as all hell of that fifteen seconds before the deadline…until my arms go numb and limp, and my voice disappears, and my memory of spells I've known for ages simply vanishes, and suddenly, without the power to speak, gesture or recall I can't do any magic at all. When the deadline comes Bad Willow appears in front of me. She looks me up and down at first, then she looks me in the eye. "I told you," she says, "I've learned some things too."

Kennedy doesn't hesitate. She charges at Bad Willow with a scream. The evil twin raises her palm toward Ken in a talk-to-the-hand gesture and Ken goes flying backward into the opposite wall. My Slayer slides down to the floor unconscious after the impact.

Bad Willow smiles. "Well, little Nixon won't be bothering us again for a while." Again, the attempt to correct her comes automatically, but without a voice it's a futile one. "Relax," Bad Willow says, "you'll get your voice back as soon as you say one little word: yes, as in 'Yes, Sorceress, I'll help you.'"

I remember what Buffy said and keep my mouth shut. I can't help her. I know the costs of such misuse of magic better than anyone, maybe even better than her.

Bad Willow's smile fades. "You don't know anything," she says. "I guess I'll have to do more to convince you." She puts a hand on my shoulder. A moment later my apartment disappears and Kennedy, Bad Willow and I are in the library of the building in London that Buffy and Giles are using as Slayer Central. Buffy and Giles are in the library as well, along with Xander, Faith, Dawn, Robin and Andrew. All of the others look as confused as I feel.

"What?" Bad Willow says. "You wanted to be together, right? I have no problem with that. Makes things easier for me. If you say 'no' I can destroy you all at once."

"You're not going to destroy anybody!" Buffy says. She charges Bad Willow with blood in her eye. Bad Willow huffs and waves her arm. The gesture sends Buffy flying back into the far wall.

"Does she always have to be so predictable?" Bad Willow asks the room.

"I'm not sure I like your new friend, Red." Faith says to me. Ironically, she manages to keep herself from making the same mistake Kennedy and Buffy made. She approaches us slowly, sizing Bad Willow up. "She tries to be big and scary, but she's not all that bright. That's a bad combination."

"Oh really?" Bad Willow says. "So, what, you intend to educate me?"

Faith is getting closer inch-by-inch, keeping her eyes locked on Bad Willow all the way. "I dunno. It just seems to me that if you were really such Hot Shit you wouldn't be wasting your time trying to force Will to flip to the Dark Side. And all the big UFOs? That's nice and flashy, but impractical, like maybe you're trying to compensate for something."

Bad Willow crosses her arms. "I see…and what exactly would I be compensating for?"

"Oh, the usual inadequacies…like maybe you're thinking if you can't turn our Willow nothing you do will bring back Anya, like if she doesn't help you you're not going to be able to do anything but throw a huge-ass tantrum, and that doesn't help anybody."

"Maybe, but it hurts you more than it hurts me."

"True, but it still doesn't get you what you want. Tantrums never do. They're just cries for attention. All of this is just you saying 'Look at me! I'm all evil and bad-ass and if you don't do what I want I'm'a be reeal mad!' I'm wondering if it ever occurred to you to just ask nicely?"

As Faith talks, I notice Kennedy and Buffy starting to recover. The other Slayers are keeping their eyes on Bad Willow as she listens to Faith. I can't read minds right now, but I don't have to to see that the three of them plan to jump her at once as soon as they're able. I'm just worried about what will happen if my twin figures it out.

"It occurred to me," she says, "but I figured you guys would say 'no', so it made more sense to me to force the issue."

"Still think you're going about it all wrong," Faith says. "Things have changed a lot since you were here last. For one thing, there's a lot more Slayers. If it were me, I'd do less of the showing off and more cloak and dagger stuff aimed at taking out some of that competition."

"Oh, you mean like I've been doing since we got here?"

Faith freezes in her tracks when she hears her own voice. She doesn't turn around to see her own doppelganger, dressed like mine, standing right behind her. I don't blame her. Hearing your voice when you know you're not doing the talking is disturbing enough.

"That prison shrink really was a bullshit artist, wasn't she?" Bad Faith says. "Sounds like you went to as many sessions as I did. You really got her psychobabble down. 'Course, it's about as likely to work on my boss as it was to work on us."

Good Faith smiles. "Can't blame a girl for trying." That's when she turns and uses the moves she was going to use on Bad Willow on her counterpart. Bad Faith dodges the first few blows, then parries the next few, then the two Faiths start trading shots. The fight looks even, but it's not hard to tell that Bad Faith is biding her time while Good Faith is trying her damnedest to lay out her opponent.

Buffy and Kennedy attack Bad Willow again as she watches the fight, trying to take advantage of the distraction. It doesn't help. Without even looking Bad Willow makes that hand gesture again and sends them flying, then she huffs and gives her Faith an annoyed look. "Faith, could we get on with it?"

Good Faith turns out of habit, giving her twin the opening to grab her from behind and immobilize her. "Sorry, Boss," Bad Faith says, "just having a little fun with Mini Me here."

Bad Willow gives me a glance. "I know how you feel, but the other two are starting to get on my nerves, so wouldja mind…?"

"No problem, Sorceress." A second later Good Faith screams and begins to glow. She fights harder to break out of Bad Faith's grip, but the doppelganger is too strong. Soon an inky black mist begins to rise from Good Faith's body. Bad Faith closes her eyes and inhales it.

"In case you haven't figured it out yet," Bad Willow says to Good Faith, "my girl is using a spell I enchanted her with to steal your Slayer powers. In fact, all my Warrior Witches were enchanted with it before we came here! How stupid do I look now, bitch?"

Everyone looks on in awe. Kennedy and Buffy look especially terror-struck, and Good Faith looks and sounds like she's in agony. She doesn't stop screaming until the glow fades and the last of the mist leaves her body. Bad Faith lets her victim go then, letting her body fall limp to the floor, then she turns to look at Buffy and Kennedy. She smiles and beckons them with her finger. "Group hug…" With that the Slayers fly through the air and end up in Bad Faith's arms, then they scream as she steals their powers as well. Soon they end up on the floor piled up on top of Good Faith. Bad Faith looks down on them, grinning and panting with the effort.

"Now let's review," Bad Willow says to everyone. "That leaves all the Slayers out of action, your only witch incapacitated, and now the only people in this room with any kind of superpowers are the bad guys. Anyone seeing a pattern?"

Giles clenches his fists and stares her right in the eye. "Only the same pattern of greed, selfishness and brutality that are the hallmarks of any bully or tyrant. The only things that change are the methods. There is nothing particularly new about you, nor will your fate be different from that of any other tyrant."

Bad Willow smiles at him. "Rupert, Rupert…you're only being so brave because you think you've seen the worst Willow can do. Thing is, you haven't met me until today."

"I've met you," Xander says, "and nothing I've seen from you then or since makes me think he's wrong."

"The way I hear it," Robin says, "last anybody heard of you, you were on the floor screaming in pain in your own house. Doesn't sound like you're all that invulnerable to me."

Bad Willow's smile fades and she sighs as she says, "Obviously everyone here is suffering from an over-confidence problem. Where do you think we should start, Faith?"

Bad Faith takes a quick glance at Robin and turns back to Bad Willow. "Ooh…I think I want to dance with that fine black buck over there."

Bad Willow's smile returns. "You go ahead. I'm not really in the mood to dance. I wouldn't mind a nice straight kill though, so I think I'll start with Dawnie."

"Why me?" Dawn asks, incredulous.

"Because you're the youngest and the cutest, which means everybody will be sad to see you snuffed…and it will really piss Buffy off when she wakes up and hears the news." With that she clenches her fist and her eyes turn black, and Robin gets into a fighting stance as Bad Faith turns toward him.

And that's when I realize what I have to do. I take a deep breath and say, "Yes!"

Bad Willow and Bad Faith turn to me. "Yes, what?" Bad Willow says.

"Yes," I say, "I'll help you bring Anya back. Just leave everyone alone."

Bad Willow's eyes return to normal as she comes over to me. "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" She says. "Faith, take everyone else and put them someplace safe until we're done."

"You got it, Sorceress." Bad Faith raises her hand and snaps her fingers and everyone else in the room disappears, leaving just my doppelganger and me.

"Come on," she says as she puts her hand on my shoulder, "we've got a date with a rock pile."

It's still dark in California when we arrive at the edge of the rocky valley that used to be Sunnydale. We're standing at the end of what used to be the main road into town. A permanent barrier has been erected to stop anybody that decided to ignore the detour signs further up the road. It hardly seems necessary. The last people to visit this place - Federal and State government officials trying to figure out what happened - left years ago. The area is off limits to developers, and nobody who lived here before the destruction of the Hellmouth really wants to come back for a visit.

When our feet are on solid ground again I get feeling back in my arms and I'm starting to remember spells again. "I'm giving you access to your powers," Bad Willow says, "but don't get cute. Try anything now and Faith will pay back every spell with the death of one of your friends."

"I understand," I say. I try to get blood circulating to my hands as Bad Willow goes over to the barrier. She leans over the edge and peers into the rubble as if she's trying to find something she lost, and I guess she is in a way. I've given up the idea of trying to stop her with brute force, but I can't let her go through with it, so my only option is trying to talk her out of it. "We shouldn't be doing this."

She stands up straight and turns to me. "Whether we should or not isn't my concern," she says. "We're going to do this."

"You don't even know if we can do it," I say.

She shakes her head. "I do know. I could do it myself, but not without expending a huge amount of the power I just got back, so I plan to expend yours."

"Do you know how Anya died?"

"Of course I do. I've watched her death a thousand times."

"She was human again, and she was killed by a sword."

"I know that. So?"

"So it was a mortal death by mortal means. You can't bring her back from that."

She gives me an incredulous look. "Who made up that rule?"

"The day I lost Tara I tried to bring her back the way you're going to try and bring back Anya, with arcane magic. The demon I petitioned to help me told me that a mortal death by mortal means can't be reversed."

Now she looks at me as if I were insane. "And you fell for that?"

"Whaddya mean 'fell for it'??"

"A demon - who probably hates witches, by the way - tells you you can't bring your witch girlfriend back and you just accept his word as gospel?? No wonder your Faith thought I was stupid! She probably thinks I take after you!"

"Tara died in my arms because I put as much faith in magic as you're about to!"

"No, Tara died in your arms because you had no clue how to use your magic properly!"

"But the demon said…!"

"Oh, fuck what the demon said! Look, Tara died of a bullet through the heart, right?" I nod. "Well, did it occur to you to use your telekinetic abilities to keep blood flowing to her brain and other vital organs so the damage to the heart wouldn't have been immediately fatal?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Or how about using some of those force fields you love so much to keep her from losing too much blood?"

"No, but…!"

"Or how about just plain screaming for help really loud in a magically amplified voice so that someone with sense could come to her rescue?"

"But who would have come?"

"How about one of the two paramedics working on Buffy right in the fucking backyard??"

I want to answer, but I can't. None of that occurred to me as Tara was dying, but none of it occurred to me at any time after she died either. I just accepted that there was nothing I could have done to keep her with me, and now that I realize I was wrong…Oh god, Tara…

When she sees I can't answer she begins to pace. She doesn't stop until she's ready to berate me again. "You know what kills me about you, Girl Scout? You could be me, but the main reason you're not has nothing to do with our motivations and everything to do with the fact that the love of your life had to die before you got to the point where you halfway took your magic seriously! When you first started doing it, it was a game! When you were with Tara it was an aphrodisiac! When you were with Amy it was a drug! When you lost Tara it was a blowtorch! The main reason you're nowhere near as powerful today as you could be is because it wasn't until after you tried to fry the world that you figured out what Wiccan magic is!"

"And what would that be?"

"An extension of our will, just like any other tool!" With that, she turns to Sunnydale Valley and extends her hand over the barrier. A second later the rocks and dirt erupt in a tornado that reaches into the clouds. She watches the dirt storm intently until she finds what she wants. She beckons the object with her extended hand and keeps the storm going as it approaches. As it gets closer the place we're standing is bathed in an artificial light so that we can see it more clearly. It's a corpse, a skeleton of a human being, the flesh and clothing long rotted away. Bad Willow draws the corpse all the way past the barrier and lets it down gently on the road near us. Only then does she let the rubble collapse back into the pit.

My gaze is fixed on the corpse. "Is that…?"

"Kneel down in front of her," Bad Willow says. I comply, not sure of what else to do. When I'm on the ground she stands behind me and puts her hands on my shoulders. "Repeat after me: Potencia a mi Geminus."

"Potenseeuh ah me Geminoose…" I say.

"You'll start us off by chanting that. Whatever happens, don't stop chanting it until I tell you. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

She straightens up and squeezes my shoulders. "Start now."

I begin the chant. "Potencia a mi Geminus…Potencia a mi Geminus…" In the middle of the third repetition I suddenly feel like my body is on fire! From that point on I have to scream the words to avoid simply screaming in pain! Only then does Bad Willow start her part of the spell. She begins to recite words in a language I don't recognize. Her voice echoes in the air and through my mind and seems to build in volume and intensity as she recites! My pain intensifies when she reaches the end of the spell. I can feel every ounce of my power flowing into her, and in turn flowing into the corpse before us! After a few minutes have passed, when I can let the pain wash over me and can chant in a relatively normal tone of voice, I look down at the skeleton. It's glowing white-hot. The energy it's giving off is melting the blacktop. Just when I think it will melt itself into the ground, the skeleton levitates until it's eye level with Bad Willow, then it begins to spin. Slowly, incredibly, the brittle bones become whole and strong again, muscle begins to reconstitute itself, blood flows through the sinews, skin grows onto the muscles, healthy pink skin. The body stops rotating when its hair begins to grow - long, light brown hair - then it's lowered to the ground until it's resting on the cooling street.

Through it all I continue to chant, but I stare in awe at the body's face. It's Anya, just as she looked when we first met, whole, untouched. Bad Willow says one final word, then Anya's eyes spring open and she sucks in a desperate breath of air.

"Stop!" Bad Willow calls out. She lets me go and has Anya cradled in her arms before I can even sense it. The sudden release leaves me weak and dizzy. I manage to keep from falling all the way to the ground, but I can only support myself on my elbows. As I lay there I look on in amazement at this strange reunion.

Anya is breathing on her own. Bad Willow is cradling her nude form and staring into her eyes. I don't understand what she's waiting for until Anya shakes her head a little to clear it, then turns to my twin and says in a weak and confused voice, "Willow…?"

Only then does Bad Willow's mask collapse. For a split second she goes from avenging goddess to joyful lover. Her lip quivers and she has to squint away tears. She brings Anya's face close to hers and holds her tight to her chest as she stands. She doesn't turn back to me until she can get back some semblance of composure, and even then I can hear the emotion in her voice when she whispers to me, "Thank you."

Neither of us says anything else until two of Bad Willow's warriors appear near me. In a stronger voice she tells them, "Take her and put her with her friends. Make them all as comfortable as you can, but don't let any of them out of your sight."

"Yes, Sorceress," one of them says. I feel each of them grab an arm and lift me into a standing position. Deep down I want to resist, but I'm utterly powerless. Just before the other witches teleport me away I catch a glimpse of Bad Willow floating into the air, carrying the reincarnated Anya off to God-knows-where.

I'm so sorry, Anya, is the only thought that occupies my mind. I'm so very sorry.