Chapter 4: Power

Almost two hours later after the witches had all gone home to their houses, Dawn had been tucked into bed for the night by Spike and had placed headphones over her ears so that she wouldn't hear anything coming from the downstairs.

After Spike had left for the night, Willow, Tara and Buffy sat in the living room trying to clean up the mess the best they could so that nothing would be permanently ruined. It seemed hopeless though. Willow and Tara were using spot remover on the carpet which had green spots left after the dust had been vacuumed. Buffy was taking cleaning wipes over the walls to try to see if the green tint would come off. Unfortunately as Tara had quietly suggested, magic was not cleanable with household cleaners.

Buffy finally threw her wipe into the garbage can upset that it was only slightly brown from actual dirt that had been removed not green suggesting the tint was being removed. She sighed throwing herself onto her now greenish tint couch feeling her ankle throb badly. Her arm was still leaking blood slightly even after being wrapped up. Add that to the fact her living room was destroyed, she was quite angry.

She glared at both Willow and Tara as she asked in a demanding voice, "So now what? I'm stuck with your mess forever? I can't afford a new couch. I can't afford a new carpet and I sure can't afford to repaint this room. Do you realize how much this will actually cost to repair? I personally don't but I know the commercials on the TV for carpet places give hundreds of dollars discounts suggesting it's way more than hundreds of dollars to recarpet a room."

Buffy looked on the edge of tears she was so mad so she practiced what Joyce often did. She took a deep breath and left the room to catch her breath. Meanwhile Willow raced past her up the stairs. In the kitchen Buffy noticed the entire kitchen once full of food was now very empty looking. Apparently not only had the witches had their friends over but they had fed them every piece of grocery that Buffy had bought. It had been bought with the last amount of money that Buffy had in her savings account.

While Buffy made some tea to calm herself down, Willow gathered supplies and collected a spell using, "Reveal it!"

Smiling she waltzed down the stairs ignoring Tara protests. Willow was confident as she sat the paper in front of her and placed a white candle on every spot there was. She moved to one of the pictures on the wall that just happen to show the Summers' girls in the living room when it looked normal including the rug and the walls and sofa and sat it down in the center of the circle she had just made with white salt crystals. Closing her eyes she began to chant softly not wanting Buffy to hear her.

Tara stood back in the doorway watching as Willow's hair turned a darker red then the edges turned black. She still continued to chant ignoring the sparks that flew around the room. She suddenly stood up demanding to a voice on the other side, "Make this room what it once was."

The room began to shake and things clanked off the walls leaving them bare. Buffy raced to stand behind Tara who held her hands up shouting, "Don't interrupt her. I don't know what bad will come of it."

Dawn came down the stairs afraid as she took Buffy's hand in hers. Then suddenly all at once, the pictures flew back up on the white walls where they belonged. The sofa changed to the normal white it was and the carpet became a sparkling white. Things looked better than they had in a while. The door flew up as dust exited from the room and Willow was suddenly thrown down on the ground. Everything around her disappeared including the white candles and paper with the spell on it. All was quiet except for the smell of something distinct that Buffy couldn't make out.

She heard Dawn behind her whisper, "What is that smell?"

Tara whispered back, "Magic" as she moved to Willow's side to take her into her arms.

Buffy stepped into the room hesitantly amazed and horrified at the same time. What kind of power could do this? Buffy heard Dawn whisper an amazed, "Wow" sound and she didn't know what to say. She knew she should say thank you but she couldn't bring herself to do that. Willow had made that mess and cleaning it up the way she had didn't make it better. It has costed Willow something but still it felt wrong. Instead Buffy turned towards Willow seeing she was ok and motioned to Dawn to head back up the stairs.

Within minutes Buffy turned towards Tara and Willow only saying a few words, "No more magic in this house."

She then turned and left the house ignoring the fact it was already close to 10 and she was still injured. As she limped to Spike's crypt, she realized how much her ankle still hurt. She hadn't gotten a chance to wrap it up and with all the adrenaline in her system she hadn't felt the pain but now that it was gone, that's all she felt. The cut in her arm was bleeding pretty bad.

Usually she would have asked Willow, Tara or Dawn to help her but she didn't feel like dealing with them. While it wasn't Dawn's fault, she didn't want to bother Dawn with her injuries. Dawn would only be more upset by the night.

Buffy opened the door to Spike's crypt and ignored his worried look as she practically demanded, "Come with me back to the house tonight."

She had to give Spike credit, he barely even blinked in surprise as he grabbed his duster and followed her into the night. He was tempted to help her walk back to the house with as bad as she was limping but resisted the urge knowing it would not be welcomed. Instead slowly they made their way back to the Summers' household.