When Alucard made his way into Revello Drive, he was not expecting what he was going to encounter. He expected to see Willow and perhaps Xander ranting and raving over Tara and Dawn running away, or maybe one of them attacking him for his 'part' in everyone walking out on them. But no, what he found was nothing like he was anticipating.

Walking through the front door, he glanced around before finding his intended target and to say he was surprised was an understatement.

Instead of a defiant, perhaps even a violent Willow, he found her sitting against the wall. Her arms were wrapped around her knees that were drawn up to her chest and he could see the violent shudders of her shoulders and smell the salt of her tears. She sniffled, sobbing into her legs as he stepped into the room. Despite everything she had done, and everything she could have done, he felt a small shred of sympathy as he saw, finally saw, what he had wanted to see all along: realisation and regret.

At last, she had come to terms with just how irresponsible her actions had been. And what she had lost because of it.

The sound of his boots on the carpet caused Willow to look up. Her face was streak with tears and her eyes were bloodshot. Her chest was heaving with the heavy breaths she took trying to get her sobs under control. He watched as she swallowed at the sight of him, there was no fight left in her. Only guilty acceptance.

"I suppose you're here to say 'I told you so'?" She muttered, bitterly. He slowly slid down into a crouch in front of her, his expression neutral as he looked her over.

"It gives me no pleasure to see you in this state, Willow." He answered. She snorted, shaking her head.

"It should though, I mean you were right." Her face crumpled further as her eyes stared blankly at the carpet. "You were always right." She bit the inside of her mouth. "I…I attacked Dawn, I tried to…tried to rape Tara. I used magic to make her body willing and I brought back Buffy from heaven." She sniffed again as Alucard said nothing. "I don't know what I've become."

"That's the problem with power, Willow. It corrupts." She closed her eyes, more tears slipping free. "You started using magic as crutch, you started playing God, something it should never be used for…and that is where it all started going wrong." He stood quietly. "At least now, you realise that." She looked at him, brokenly.

"But only after I've lost everything." She mumbled. He held out his hand to her and she glanced at it, confused.

"Sometimes you must lose everything, in order to gain something." After a moment's hesitation, she took it and allowed him to help her up. She wiped her face but realised he had not let her go. She looked up at him questioningly as he grip tightened just enough for it to hurt. His eyes were dangerous as he gave her a deadly stare. "Before we do anything, however, there is one thing I want to know." She swallowed, nervously.

"What's that?"

"How many of the things you have done have been entirely you? Tearing Buffy out of heaven, stealing Tara's memory, planning to do the same to Buffy and finally what you did to Tara tonight," she flinched at the last one, "how many of those are your own doing and how many of those were due to Xander whispering in your ear?" She licked her lips, glancing down.

She did not want to get Xander into trouble but, even as she had that thought, she realised that Xander alone was responsible for his actions and his words. Perhaps it was about time they both took some responsibility

"Bringing Buffy back and everything to do with Tara…that was me." She admitted, "But the plan to take away Buffy's memory of heaven was him." She shook her head, trying to avoid Alucard's piercing glare. "I wasn't going to do it originally but he kept…bringing it up, kept asking me to research it. So eventually I did and when I found out how to do it, he pushed for me to perform the spell," she lowered her head again, "I guess he's part of the reason that I did the spell on Tara too." Alucard gazed at her for a long moment before nodding slowly.

"Then perhaps you should think about why he would ask you to do such a thing." Before she could ask what he meant, he turned away, "Come, I will take you to the Watcher." While she felt the grip of apprehension around her stomach, Willow complied and followed him out the door.

…

Buffy ran a hand through her hair as she descended the stairs after checking in on Tara. The witch was sound asleep, shockingly given the night she had had and Buffy had made sure she was adequately tucked in before leaving the room silently. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Buffy turned into the lounge to see Dawn sitting on the couch, looking very tired.

"You should be getting ready for bed, missy." She said, coming into the room to sit next to her sister. Dawn blinked sleepily.

"I will…I just…where's Spike?" Dawn enquired. Buffy sighed.

"He's gone out, he said he needed to clear his head." It was a half-lie, Spike had indeed gone out but he told Buffy he was going to perform a quick patrol. She smirked at the fact even though she had managed to calm him down, he was hoping to rid himself with any residual stress with some violence. Some things never changed.

She was aware that she should have been worried given how he could harm humans now, but she trusted him. She knew he would never do anything that would hurt her.

"Oh…" Dawn looked down, glumly. "I was hoping to see him before going to bed." Buffy smiled at her sister, reaching over to run her fingers through her sister's hair. Dawn leant into her touch, curling up so she could lie against her older sibling for a few minutes.

"You can see him in the morning, but you need to get some sleep." Buffy answered, firmly. "Go on, get ready for bed, I'm pretty sure Spike said he still has some of your stuff here. I'll call in tomorrow for you." Dawn nodded.

"Okay," she stood up and kissed her sister's cheek. "I'll see you in the morning." She started to head towards the staircase. Reaching it, she paused and turned to look back at her sister. "Buffy?" Her older sister glanced up at her. "I know things are bad at the moment, with Tara and everything but…I'm glad you're okay." She received a smile in reply as she went up the stairs.

Buffy sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. It had been a long night. Tara and Dawn's arrival here was a shock in itself without the news of Willow's attack. The fact her friend had been under the influence of something magical at the time made it all the more apparent to Buffy that those she had considered her closest friends were not people she wanted to be around.

Willow, whilst a sweet and caring girl at first, had become egotistical and power hungry since learning how to use magic. Her natural talent for it, whilst impressive certainly, had slowly gone to her head. It had been subtle at first, small hints of her growing arrogance slipping through at first. But now, the girl who had been Buffy's best friend was gone and the person who had replaced her was not someone Buffy liked. Even so the Slayer hoped that beneath that exterior, the compassionate Willow she had once known was still there.

And then there was Xander.

Buffy cringed at the thought of just how much she had allowed Xander to get away with during the time she had known him. Every time she had done something that had gone against his personal belief system, he had criticised her harshly and, at times, hurt her doing so. Her time in heaven had shown that looking at the word in 'black and white' was a gross oversimplification and that there shades of grey everywhere. A human could be just evil as Xander claimed demons were, and she had ignored that before.

And that brought her to the second thing about him that she had become aware of: his hypocrisy. Xander never liked being proven wrong or living life by the standards he demanded she live her life by. He constantly preached his hatred for vampires and demons but always said that his being in a relationship with Anya was not up for criticism. 'She's human now,' he would always say but she never expressed any guilt for her actions as a vengeance demon. And whenever Buffy showed trust, or even a liking, for Spike he would rant and rave that something was wrong with her.

Buffy stood up and shook her head, she decided that going to bed would be more productive that sitting there brooding. Willow and Xander would eventually be dealt a bad hand by karma and she was fine with that.

Heading up the stairs, she stole a glance into Tara's room and felt a warmth go through her at what she saw. Dawn was just clambering in behind Tara who woke up briefly. The witch turned to her head slightly and gave the tiniest of smiles before settling down as her younger sister scooted closer and wrapped an arm around her and they settled in for the night. Feeling a rush of pride towards her sibling, Buffy quietly closed the door and left them to fall asleep.

"How are they?" She turned to see Mina sitting on the windowsill at the far-end of the landing. Buffy sighed, padding over to her and leaning against the wall, folding her arms.

"Dawn is fine, a little shaken but fine. Tara," she shook her head, "it's hard to say. Willow, I didn't think she would do anything like this. I don't…I don't have the words." Mina turned her gaze out of the window.

"'Betrayal is the only truth sticks.'" Buffy looked at the Eternal Slayer and could see a shift in her demeanour and hear the tone in her voice as she quoted that saying. There was something else, something much deeper behind those words when Mina spoke them. It was a wound, a spiritual and emotional wound that had never healed in all of Mina's life. She had carried it for a long time. "Tara has been betrayed in the worst way by the woman she loved and claimed to love her," she looked back to Buffy. "No-one ever recovers from that." Buffy's eyes widened slightly as she took in the pain emanating from Mina at this point.

"What happened to you?" She asked in a whisper. Mina looked away painfully. Even after all these years, the treachery she had suffered when she was mortal still burned today. Her eyes went distant as her mind wandered back to her early years and how she had sacrificed so much for the world, only to be repaid with a harsh truth. "This is different for you," Buffy went on, "I mean Tara's my friend and Dawn's my sister and I'm angry at Willow for what she's done, but you…this is different for you, more personal." She shook her head in confusion. "Why?"

For a few moments, there was a tense silence as she waited for Mina to respond

"I was like you," she answered so quietly Buffy had to strain to hear her, "I was called when I was fifteen and fought night after night for ten long years." She raised her eyes to the younger slayer, who looked astonished at the moisture swimming under her lashes. "I was regarded as the longest serving and most skilled Slayer to have ever been called and that isn't me boasting, it's fact. But then, I did something unforgivable in the Council's eyes."

"What?" Buffy answered. She never thought she would see Mina this…open.

"I decided to live." Mina stood up and moved past Buffy as she spoke. "I met Alucard when I was eighteen, I fell in love with him…and I decided to live for me instead of fighting an endless war." She stopped her back to Buffy, the slightly quiver in her shoulders giving away her emotional turmoil. "And he killed me for it…."

"Who?" Mina turned her head back to Buffy who gasped when a tear trickled down her cheek.

"My Watcher," she answered. The younger Slayer's face creased with horror as she stared at Mina in horror. Mina turned away, determined not to fall apart in front of Buffy as she swiped the tear away. "You're friends tore you out of heaven, betraying you in the process. Whilst under the influence of dark magic, Willow tried to rape Tara, betraying her in the process. And all of it just reminds me of the man who turned on me and killed me because I fell in love with the 'thing' he taught me I was supposed to kill." She moved to the staircase, stopping before going down them.

"You're right, this is personal for me because you don't just forgive someone trying to rape you, you don't just forgive your friends tearing you out of heaven…" she glanced at Buffy again, her eyes a strange combination of blazing fury and watery sadness, "and you don't just forgive someone killing you. This is all personal for me, because I know better than anyone what the two of you are going through."

With that she disappeared down the stairs and out of the house, leaving a stunned Buffy in her wake.

…

Giles jerked awake as someone knocked on his door. Fumbling blindly for his glasses, he dragged himself out of bed, grabbing a robe to pull on as he headed for the door. Turning on lights as he went, he growled as the person outside knocked again.

"Hold your bloody horses, I'm coming!" He called angrily, "Who in their bloody right mind would knocking on the door at this ungodly hour," he muttered to himself as he unlocked the door and yanked it open, "Yes what do…Alucard!" He exclaimed at the first vampire, "Willow?" The witch did not meet his gaze, giving a feeble wave.

"Good evening, Watcher." Alucard stepped to the side, "after you, Ms Rosenberg." Willow stepped into the apartment as Giles looked confused as she came in…closely followed by Alucard. Giles watched flabbergasted as the vampire stepped into the apartment casually, looking around with interest. "I apologise for calling on you at such a late hour." Giles looked at him with wide eyes, his mouth opening and closing in utter bewilderment.

"I…you…I…" Alucard turned slightly to look at him.

"Yes?"

"You…" Alucard regarded him coolly as Willow stood timidly to the side watching them. "You just entered a person's home with no invitation." The vampire smirked in amusement.

"You don't get to be my age without learning a few tricks, Watcher." He answered. Giles coughed and closed the door and heading into the sitting room.

"What are you doing here?" Giles asked. Alucard turned to Willow with an arched brow and she licked her lips nervously.

"I was hoping I could stay here tonight?" Willow ventured. Normally, Giles would be inclined to ask why but the fact Alucard had been the one bring her told him something had taken place.

"Of course, I assume you remember where the guest room is." The witch nodded timidly.

"Yeah, I'm just going to turn in now, if that's okay?" At the older man's nod, she chanced a look at Alucard who merely offered a polite half bow.

"Good night, Ms Rosenberg."

"Night." She replied meekly. There was not much else she could say at that point, nor was there anything she wanted to say. She turned and headed to the guest room, leaving the two men alone. Giles turned to his guest, unsure how to proceed.

"Drink?" He offered. Alucard gave a single nod with a half-smile and Giles led him into the sitting room. As Alucard looked over the bookcases, the Watched headed into the kitchen and grabbed the bottle of whiskey and two glasses. He arrived back in the lounge to see the first vampire reading one of the Council's books on vampires. Setting the glasses down and pouring a decent amount of whiskey into each, he moved towards his guest.

The vampire looked up from the book as Giles stood before him. The Watched observed him with fascination as Alucard looked over the pages again.

"It's fascinating that the Council think they have written volumes upon volumes about demons and vampires, about their ways of life and their habits when…in reality," he gave the Watcher a sardonic look before snapping the book shut mockingly, "they have written pages of nothing." Giles frowned as Alucard slid the book back on its shelf before taking the offered glass of whiskey.

"I would say the Council knows a great deal about vampires." Giles argued. Alucard gave a quiet scoff, taking a smooth mouthful of his beverage.

"They know a great deal about killing them, but they lack your experience in the field, Mr Giles," he answered as he sat down on the sofa, Giles moving to sit opposite him in the armchair, "they have not seen how vampires live night to night and how each individual vampire is as unique as each individual human." He chuckled shortly. "But then again, some vampires have no idea what it means to be what they are other than the blood and the hunt. And I suppose they are the only vampires your council have thought to base their assumptions on." Giles tilted his head, engrossed by the powerful vampire before him. He knew there was so much about Alucard that was a mystery and that there was far more to him than met the eye.

But tonight was not the night for those questions.

"Why are you here, Alucard?" He asked. "I'm sure you did not wake me at such an ungodly hour to bring Willow here for the night and to debate the Council's short comings." Alucard let out another quite snort.

"Willow." Giles leant back, eying him shrewdly.

"What has she done?" Alucard took another mouthful of his drink.

"If you need to ask that question, you clearly have not been paying attention to your charges, Mr Giles." He responded sardonically. As the Watcher spluttered indignantly, he went on. "She has been playing God, Watcher, and she has been for some time." Giles bit the inside of his mouth, raising his drink to his lips for a long gulp before speaking.

"I understand that Willow returning Buffy to life has given her an inflated opinion of her abilities but…"

"Inflated?" Alucard let out a rich chuckle. "There is nothing inflated about her opinion. She is an extremely powerful witch, Watcher. One you have not given any form of proper instruction to in all the time you have known her. She is entirely self-taught and, as a result, has none of the discipline an instructor could instil in her."

"She has been practicing spells with Tara for…"

"It is not Tara's responsibility to train her, Watcher. It is yours and you have been sorely lacking in that department." Alucard's judgemental tone struck a nerve with Giles, who put his glass down with a thump and pointed at the vampire.

"Now see here! I respect who and what you are, Alucard, but Willow's witchcraft is not my responsibility or my area of expertise! Perhaps I should have been more watchful, but she advanced so quickly that there was very little I could." He argued Alucard just watched him calmly. "You may be the agent of the Powers, but I will not have you lecture me on where I have failed as a Watcher!" Alucard stared at him for a long moment with such intensity that Giles actually began to regret his words. He swallowed nervously as the first vampire's gaze bored into him.

"'Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.'" Giles frowned at Alucard's quote as the vampire drained the last of his whiskey. "The Xunzi." He offered in explanation. "I have no doubt that Tara told Willow many times about the dangers of magic and how addictive it can be, but I do doubt Willow even remembers what was said. You have known her longer andshould have taken a firm hand with her the second she started using magic, Watcher. But you did not, leading to this whole mess we have now." Giles, hit hard by both the accusation and the truth of those words, hung his head. "And now you must do what you should have done years ago and teach her properly…before she harms someone else." Alucard stood and began to leave.

"What do you mean?" He stopped and turned to look at Giles who looked confused and worried. "What has Willow done?"

"I will not do Willow a disservice by confessing her sins for her." The vampire replied. "Get the story from her, Watcher. And then, make sure she is better equipped to wield the power she has. She could do a lot of good…as long as she is kept on the right path." He headed for the door, pulling it open.

"And you think I am the one to teach her?" Alucard paused for a moment, Giles watching expectantly.

"'Without a mentor in life, one can easily succumb to folly, without a mentor in life one can easily become self-centred, capricious and arrogant.'" He quoted before glanced back at the Watcher wisely, "I think it's past that point now, don't you? Good night, Watcher." He went to leave again before a thought struck. "Oh, you may wish to keep her away from Xander." Giles frowned in bemusement.

"You think he had something to do with her actions?"

"I think his influence didn't help." With that short answer, Alucard left the apartment, leaving a concerned Giles behind him.

…

Buffy was awakened by the sounds of heavy boots on the stairs. She glanced around the room, vainly searching for a clock before realising she was in Spike's room. And that a vampire had little need for a clock being nocturnal…not that Spike ever conformed to that rule.

She rubbed her eyes, sitting up in bed just in time for the door to open and reveal Spike as he stepped into the room. He stopped at the sight of her, looking surprised to see her there though not unhappy.

"Hey…" she greeted, sleepily.

"Hey," he shrugged off his coat, folding over the chair, "you okay?" She nodded.

"Yeah," she rubbed her eyes, "Tara and Dawn are in my room. I didn't think you'd mind if I slept here tonight." He shook his head.

"Not at all, darlin'." He shrugged, jerking his thumb to the door. "Guess that just means I'll sleep on the couch." She frowned.

"Why? You can stay here." He glanced at her questioningly. "What? We've been sharing a bed practically every night since I got back." He tilted his head with a slight smile.

"I think you waking up and calling me after having a nightmare is a bit different than…"

"Spike." He stopped as she gave him an amused but stern look.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and get into bed." He chuckled, taking off his shirt and preceding to slip into sweatpants. Buffy turned away, her cheeks glowing red as he took of his boots and jeans. She heard him still snickering as the duvet was pulled back and she felt the bed dip as he slid in.

"Okay, you can stop hiding your blushing eyes." She turned around, seeing him lying back with one arm curled behind his head, his blue eyes twinkling with amusement.

"Well, forgive a girl for being surprised when the man she's been kissing the last week just decides to strip naked in front of her." He chuckled.

"Says the girl who pulled said man into the shower with her the first night we were here." Her blush deepened.

"Shut up." She muttered as she shifted over and snuggled into his shoulder. His hand began trailing up and down her spine as they lay in silence, simply enjoying and taking comfort in each other's presence.

"Hell of a day, huh?" Spike muttered. She nodded against him.

"Yeah, you can say that again." She answered softly. "I'm still having trouble believing that Willow did this." He grunted.

"These days I have trouble believing the things she hasn't done." She looked at him for a moment, seeing the anger in his face. She sighed and began stroking the skin on his chest to soothe him.

"Let's not think about it, I just want to go to sleep without an angry vampire lying next to me." He chuckled and nodded, still trailing his fingers up her back. Her back arched a little, a small sigh of pleasure leaving her lips.

"All right." She smiled at him before leaning over to give him a chaste kiss. He murmured into her mouth, running his fingers through her hair for a moment before pulling away. "Sweet dreams, Buffy."

"Sweet dreams, Spike."

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