Hey guys! So I've had this story written down on paper for quite some time, and I've decided that I might as well put it out there for others to read.
It's about 85 hand-written pages.
So, depending on wether or not you guys like it, I'll continue to post chapters.
So please review! I can always edit the story if you don't like the way it's going.
They stood at the edge of the crater, staring into the deep depths that they had all called home at one time. No one said a word as they all broke off into their own groups to have a moment to really absorb what had just happened.
Xander didn't move. He couldn't move. He was so overcome by emotion, that he didn't know what to do, or where to go. He simply took a few steps towards the edge and continued to stare down into the hole. He went into the high school with the one he loved, and left without her.
His gaze fell to the ground as he choked back the tears that were threatening to cloud his vision. He picked up a small rock and chucked it into the crater, hearing a small tap as it hit the bottom.
"Take that Hellmouth!" He yelled, not realizing how loud the echo might be. About 15 feet from him a large chunk of the cliff broke off and fell down into the crater.
"I think it heard you." Dawn said as she joined him at the edge. She placed her hand on his back, silently guiding him away from the edge and back towards the bus.
"Good…" he mumbled as his feet shuffled along the dirt path. He noticed that Willow was sitting on the cliff, letting her feet hang over the rocky edge.
"I'll catch up with you, Dawn." He said as he wandered over to his friend, taking a seat next to her.
"It's a lot to take in…" Willow practically whispered as she stared straight across the top. "I can still imagine what everything looked like. The school, my house, the streets… But they're all gone…"
"Yeah… " He let out a choppy sigh and Willow placed her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it slightly. "It's was our home, Will. As dangerous, scary, and unpredictable as it was, it was all I had." A tear ran down his cheek, "Now she's gone…"
"Hey," Willow could tell he wasn't just talking about Sunnydale anymore, "It's okay." She flashed him a sad grin, "It'll be okay."
"How could you possibly know that?"
"Because I went through the same thing."
Xander gave a oh yeah face and looked down at his hands, avoiding eye contact with the witch.
"Yep… I think we've seen just about every scary thing that you can imagine. But nothing prepares you for losing someone you love… Nothing." Willow copied his actions by avoiding eye contact.
After a few moments of deep thought, she spoke again, "Xander, I know how you feel right now. And it feels pretty bad. Really bad, actually. And it's not just going to go away with a hug and a kiss. It's going to hurt pretty bad for quite some time."
"Will, I don't think this is helping too much."
"I'm not done… It's going to hurt for a long time. But not forever." He looked up at her and she continued, "It'll hurt for a few months. And a little less in the weeks after that. And the days following that it'll hurt even less. Till one day you'll wake up and it won't be the first thing on your mind."
"I just don't know where I'm going to go from here… I don't want to forget about her…" He mumbled with tears in his eyes.
"You won't… You never will… But you'll accept that this is the way things were meant to be." She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and laid her head against his neck, "And then one day you'll fall in love with someone, and they will be on your mind all the time."
"I sure hope so…" Xander trailed off.
The two of them sat there for a few minutes in complete silence, just enjoying each other's company.
"Oh crap…" Xander said as he put his hands up to his eyes.
"What?" Willow looked over at him, but didn't notice anything irregular.
"My eye patch is all soggy…" He took it off and rung it out.
Willow burst out into a fit of giggles at the sight of the patch on his face.
"It's not funny, Will! It is totally distracting from my manly pirate look!" Xander replaced it on his head and nudged Willow on the shoulder a little as he let a smile shine through. He stood up and offered his hand to Willow. "Come on. We should get back to everyone else. I'm sure they could use some help tending to the injured."
Willow grabbed his hand lightly and began to stand, but quickly lost her balance and found herself relying fully on the grasp that he friend had on her.
"Woah! You alright?" He asked helping her to fully gain control of her balance.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine…" She said blinking a few times, trying to get her vision clear and back to normal.
"Are you sure? I mean, that was a pretty intense spell that you had to do back there. It probably took a lot out of you."
"I think I just got up too quickly, that's all." She let go of him and they both started walking back towards the bus.
"Hey Buff! Lookin' good!" Xander smiled at Buffy as she was walking past them. Her stomach was bound tight with bandages from her stab wound.
"Not lookin' so bad yourself!" She joked, walking over to her friends.
"So how's everything goin'?" Xander asked.
"Pretty good. Wood and Rona are beat up pretty bad, but they'll make it." Buffy looked over to Willow, "How about you? Big spell back there, lots of mojo goin' on. You okay?"
"I'm fine Buffy. You should be more focused on where we are going next."
"I know, I was actually on my way to go talk to Giles. We need to figure out how far we are going to be able to drive in this thing without getting noticed."
"Subtly will be a key feature in the Slayer mobile." Xander chimed in, causing the two girls to send him strange looks. "What? We need to name it sometime!"
"Yea…" Buffy said, walking towards Giles
"Uh huh…" Willow did the same, but heading back towards the bus.
Just as Willow was turning around the back of the bus, she saw Kennedy walking down the steps with a worried look on her face.
Kennedy looked around for a moment, and then spotted Willow. Without a second thought, she walked over to the redhead and engulfed her in a huge hug.
"Um… Okay… What's with the 'huggy Kennedy'? You're never 'huggy Kennedy'. Not that I mind or anything! Just curious."
"Just glad you're okay." She let go of Willow and took a small step back and began looking Willow up and down. "You ARE okay, right?"
"Yes! I'm fine! Would everybody stop worrying? I'm fine! Everyone thinks I'm going to explode or something because I did a little magic."
"Well, the last time you did, you sort of… freaked." Kennedy tried to say it gently, but it stung just as much as if she didn't. Willow took a step back and folder her arms across her chest.
"Yeah…" Willow mumbled softly as she turned to walk away.
"Willow… I didn't mean… I-" Kennedy shouted after her.
Willow sat down on the other side of the bus trying to clear her head. She knew that she had a bad reputation for doing large spells, but she was really working hard on it. She didn't need to hear criticism from anyone else, let alone her girlfriend.
"Willow…" Kennedy rounded the corned of the bus and found Willow sitting on the ground, leaning up against the tire of the bus. "What I said… I didn't mean-"
"Yes you did." Willow cut her off, looking down to her feet, forcing herself to just ignore the fact that she wanted to just run into Kennedy's arms and for all of this to just go away.
"I'm just worried." Kennedy knelt down at Willow's side, "I worry about you. I just… You… You ARE okay, right?" Willow's eyes met hers, "I mean- not that you don't look okay- you actually look better than okay… But I… uh…" Kennedy normally would never stammer, but there was something about Willow's eyes that threw her off sometimes.
"I'm fine, Kennedy." Willow leaned forward to stand up when Kennedy reached over and began helping her up. "I'm fine! Really, Kennedy. I'm fine."
Kennedy put her hands in her pockets and watched carefully as Willow stood up on her own.
"I'm fine… I'm fine… I'm.." Willow just kept repeating the two words over and over, each time getting less and less convincing. "I'm fine…"
"Willow?" Kennedy noticed that Willow was losing her balance.
"I'm… I… I'm fine… I'm… Fi-" Willow's knees game out, sending her straight to the ground. Kennedy reached her arms down and caught her just in time.
"Willow?" No answer. "Willow!" Still nothing. Kennedy put her ear down and heard Willow breathing lightly. Kennedy picked her up in her arms with ease, and headed back towards the bus doors.
"He Kenn, what's- oh my god." Vi ran off the buss and over to Kennedy's side.
"Get the doors." Kennedy commanded.
She carried Willow onto the bus and to the back, laying her down on the bench. She could feel all the potentials eyes on her, but she didn't care.
"Can someone get some water?" She shouted over her shoulder. Within moments Xander showed up behind her holding a bottle of water.
"What's going on? Is she okay? What happened?"
"She fainted in the sun. I'm not sure if it was dehydration or-"
"The spell." Giles finished for her. He passed Xander and began inspecting Willow for any injury. "What happened RIGHT before she passed out?"
"She kept saying 'I'm fine I'm fine' over and over. She sounded kinda crazy…" Kennedy mumbled the last part, "Why? Is this because of the spell she did?"
"Not exactly…" Giles said as he took her pulse.
Buffy walked over "He guys what's all the- Willow." She stopped in her tracks and stared at her friend, "Is she alright?"
"She passed out. And I think Giles knows why…" Kennedy said, directing the last statement towards the ex-watcher kneeling next to her.
"Giles what do you know?" Buffy asked taking a small step towards him.
"Dawn…" He said mumbling slightly.
"What?" Kennedy was completely lost at this point.
"Dawn. I need Dawn…" He pulled a few notes out of his front pocket and began reading over them.
Buffy walked off the bus and Xander followed. He walked over to Faith, who was attempting to stitch up Wood. Buffy walked over to her younger sister, who was talking to some of the other girls.
"Dawn… Giles needs you…"
"What is it?" She said getting up and straightening the bottom hem of her shirt.
"Just come with me…" Buffy walked with her sister back onto the bus.
Kennedy was still kneeling down on the floor of the bus. Her eyes were locked on Willow as she pushed a strand of hair out of Willow's face and behind her ear. Giles was now sitting in the row in front of them reading a couple of books that he had brought.
"What's going on guys?" Dawn said as she approached the group in the back. "Shouldn't Willow be awake for this?"
"Dawn… Willow sort of…" Buffy started
"Amy's spell…" Dawn mumbled to herself.
"What?" Buffy turned to her, with complete confusion in her eyes.
"It's Amy's spell, isn't it?" Dawn turned to Giles who took off his glasses and began wiping them on a small handkerchief he has in his pocket.
"I'm afraid so…" He sighed as he replaced his glassed on his head.
"Okay… someone is going to tell me what is going on, and they are going to tell me now…" Kennedy stood up and put her hands on her hips, waiting for a response.
"Well… The curse that Amy put on Willow, the Penance Malediction, doesn't just go away after one visual trick. The one that Amy put on her shows itself when she is feeling incredibly stressed, or guilty."
"So how do we get rid of it?" Kennedy asked.
"You can't…" He retorted.
"What do you mean you can't?"
"I mean, unless you find and kill Amy, the curse will just keep taking over Willow until it kills her. And with the rate that it is moving, I wouldn't give her a lot of time."
The back of the bus fell silent as everyone realized the reality of Willow's situation.
"So how do I find Amy?" Kennedy broke the silence.
"This isn't some problem you could solve with brute strength or a few charms…" Giles began.
"Hey guys?" Dawn's comment was ignored.
"You'd have to track down a powerful witch and kill her. Something that won't be easy." Giles finished
"Guys?" Dawn tried again, but failed.
"I'm not just going to sit by and-" "You guys!" Dawn caught everyone's attention with a loud yell.
"What?" The two of them yelled at the same time.
"Look…" Everyone followed Dawn's gaze over to Willow.
"Oh my god…" Giles took a small step towards Willow, trying to get a better look.
Willow's hair was pitch black, and large black veins were slowly showing up on her pale, white skin.
"Willow… No…" Kennedy said as she let herself fall to her knees next to her girlfriend.
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review! And email me if you have any ideas that might help move the story along.
-Tiffany