A/N Last one for this episode, yeah it's the longest one because this episode is completely different, but if you've been reading you'll know that. I am kinda excited, this sparks some interesting plots and arcs for the rest of the season.

Chapter Forty-One

We can do this

Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2003

It came at her in full force, its strength overpowering her in an instant. Buffy could just make out the initiative camo through the darkness, whatever this thing was, it was dangerous and probably hungry. If it wasn't trying to kill her, she would've almost felt sorry for the thing, all alone, in the dark, nothing to eat. But it was a horrifying demon, a servant to the darkness, an evil.

The creature moved swiftly out of Buffy's dim eye light, knocking Spike to the floor with a surprise blow. It had bulging front teeth too large for anything other than rodent, Buffy almost screamed when she saw it, the teeth, the scolded flesh. This thing was starved and half-dead but that only fueled its ferocity. Spike's head gaping as he'd hit the floor hard, sending that bloody chip into overdrive, forcing his flesh to endure the aching. It was a pounding stab-like pain that gutted him, and the bruise forming from the fall wasn't exactly helpful either.

Buffy called out to him, but there was no answer, his head was bleeding in pain, there was no noise falling past his ears now. Then the creature hit her for a final time and began to drag what it thought was food, i.e. Spike, back down one of the halls. It whimpered slightly as it did, maybe a desperate 'thank you' but Buffy wasn't taking it. She picked up the carelessly dropped flashlight and stepped cautiously into the new darkness. Wary of the creature's hunger, it might make a swift comeback. It was cold-smelling and damp - that hallway. As she stepped her calling voice became quiet again, repeating Spike's name into the thinless air.

Then it was pushing her against the floor, a final pathetic push for a spare meal, it was hungry, starving so that the inside of its stomach appeared to be melting at the lining, the smell was unforgettable and neurotic. As it threw her wildly around the room it's head lifted and roared, her only conscious thought to find something sharp. Something I can use, something to kill with. But at first she saw nothing, (well why would she? It's completely dark in there.)

Then her hands instinctively grasped at a rake shaped object, like a shovel or broom, something with a handle. Finally, he had her cornered, standing on something old and dingy but it hardly mattered because she was at the right angle to plunge to broom handle into his throat with a great gasping roar from the creature. As she raced over to Spike's laying body, he opened his eyes and gazed at her. Wasn't she always his hero? She was always saving him, keeping him from the monsters, and she still somehow cared about him, after all he'd done. There was care in her eyes, maybe not love, but there was compassion for him. Real feeling.

Then the lights clicked on, Buffy's eyes glanced upwards until they focussed on the now visible balcony. A dozen or so commando agents standing before them, guns cocked and loaded, stern greasy looks in their plastered faces. "Miss Summers." It was a statement, not a question. "Agent Finn reported that you tried to contact him earlier today." Again, another statement.

Buffy didn't recognise this guy, but he must've been important, extra stripes on his boots. "I knew it!" She cried out, looking down at Spike, trying to explain what was going on. "I knew that flower shop was fake, she didn't even sound realistically care-y about flowers to me!" Spike nudged her slightly in confusion. "Government conspiracy."

She looked back up at the general, who called back his men with a single hand gesture. "He indicated that you might be needing our assistance. We're to provide you with anything you need to help 'assface' here." The general paused, indicating Spike, then added. "Those were his exact words ma'am." So Buffy wouldn't be confused by his informality, he was a proud man. Spike tittered and muttered to himself, that bloody soldier.

Willow sat as upright as she could manage, opposite Amy, who was reforming slowly, apparently. Thought Tara, who was sitting very closely behind, staring indicatively. Amy had her hands outstretched, eyes closed, and mantra running through her head as she attempted to stem the flow of dark magic to the witch's brain. It was when Willow started to feel the magic's power growing that she retorted, fully pulling away from Amy she fell backwards into Tara's lap, breathing heavily as her eyes shut tight.

Once Tara had lifted Willow into a seat she stood and faced Amy. The brown haired witch stared firmly back, folding her arms as Tara got on her angry face. It was quite a sight, Tara angry, didn't happen a lot, but when it did, she was always going to win. You can't fault the woman for being determined.

Her eyes peaked their usual blue as she gave Willow a slight lovelorn look then focussed squarely back on Amy. She could feel that spell going wrong as it happened, the energy was cracking all around her, she felt waves of darkness leaving Amy, but instead of drawing out Willow's it just joined inside her, making it worse. Amy hadn't changed at all. "How dare you?!" Tara said quietly, but sternly, looking down at the floor, but peering up enough to frighten the witch in front of her. "I felt it Amy, you weren't trying to help us at all, you want personal gain, what did you do to her?" The last part was mainly conjecture, really Tara had no idea whether Amy had made this happen or not, but it seemed like a line worth pursuing.

"Oh, why is it always Willow, Willow, Willow, I know you love her and everything, but it's always her. Willow half kills everyone and you all still love her, I had to go through worse and where's everyone praising me? Nowhere. Nobody cares. So I thought I'd take her down a peg or two, make her see what she really is. A junkie." Vaughne, still ever present in the room gave Amy a look of betrayal. Amy cackled out a laugh as she shot an energy blast towards the group, scattering them and they rushed out of the hall and into the night, well by now it was almost morning. "It's called a penance malediction Tara." Amy said, veering her jaw back to face the blonde, who now had her arms folded as Willow was stirring a little in her seat. "Little spell that makes her guilt manifest its-"

"I know what it does. It's cruel." Tara cut her off, she didn't want to spend another minute in this hellhole with Amy, but in truth she had little idea of how to help the situation. She may have known what the spell does, but getting rid of it was another matter, she'd never seen one work so well before. Willow must have a lot of guilt about this, why did I never think she still worried about it? We were gone all summer, all those hours training. I thought she was over it, that our friends accepting her back into their lives would help. Ohh, Willow, I'm so sorry.

Tara dismissed Amy quickly with a warning that bothering them again would lead to serious consequences. She rushed over to where Willow was waking up, she was stirring, her lips making odd sounds, but slowly she stood. Her eyes opened to a jet black. Tara was worried, the sight of Willow's darkness still shook her, it always got her so scared, so scared of what she might do with all that power, it was immoral.

"Willow? Are you ok?" She said cautiously, taking a step backwards as Willow's head reared upwards.

"Not just ok. I feel great. But you're kinda in my way, sweetie. Why don't you move along now?" Willow said with a vain attitude lingering in the back of her throat. Tara didn't know what to say. She wanted to let Willow leave but she knew deep down she had to find a way to fix this and being a coward wasn't going to work. She had to face this like the grown up woman she was.

"No." Tara said, barely stumbling on the word.

"No? Does it look like it's up for discussion, witch?" Willow's tone sharpened, her hair flailed out behind her as she stood firmly in front of her once loved.

"You're still Willow, deep down inside, you're still my Willow. You can fight it. I still love you, I'll always love you." Tara held back the tears, it was not the time to cry now, she was being brave, being confident. Willow snapped, turning her head around in a circle she couldn't focus on Tara, the good left in her was fighting back. Responding desperately to Tara's call of love for her. Even the dark Willow knew this to be true, she couldn't fight it completely. She was raging an internal war and it was her time to flee. Contorting her hand in a circle she pulled herself away from the scene, pulling herself towards the dawn, towards their house - the one that everyone always stay at. But she hadn't known she was taking Tara with her...

Spike was stretched out over a medical bench, his head lay half cracked open and bloody, there was brain surgery happening. The general stood opposite Buffy in an abandoned doorway, slumped she stared over at the undead English patient on the slab. A little pity welling in her sharp eyes. The general was talking to her, speaking about decisions, authority, who had it, who didn't. Then he presented her with a choice, one she never believed she'd have the power or position to make.

"We can either remove it or replace it. Buffy it's your call, Agent Finn left all decisions regarding hostile 17 in your hands. What do you want to do?" The words finally kicked in when he asked the final question. It was her choice, subject Spike to more years of torture that he can't bite or hurt people, which he'd kinda gotten over in the last year. Or let him free. He has a soul now, it would be ok right? Right?

They were in the Summers' backyard, their backyard. No one was back yet, only Dawn almost asleep in her room and Andrew cat-napping on the couch, Anya and Xander were still at the hospital, Buffy and Spike were still out. Tara almost wept now, the movement had caused her emotional strength to back down, and all the empathy inside her leaked out. She fell to her knees in front of Willow, the darkness inside her was crawling around trying to fight the love inside her and so her eyes kept flinching, flickering from side to side like a lightbulb about to burst.

"Willow, please. I know you're still in there." Tara said as she rose again to her feet, the soles of her shoes slightly worn and she was so tired, neither of them had gotten any sleep in all this mess and her whole body ached, but there was still the job of rescuing Willow to do before she could sit down and have hot chocolate, even if it was six in the morning.

"Tara?" A teary-voiced Willow cried out as she fell forwards into her lover's arms, the love in her trying to win out but the darkness was taking her. "She's winning, the other me, the dark one she's winning, I haven't got long." Tara wasn't sure whether Willow was referring to the time she had to talk or how long she would hold out before the dark magic consumed her.

"Willow, sweetie you can do this ok? I love you, I love all of you, even the you that's moody first thing in the morning." For that one she received a scowl but that was Willow-attitude talking. "I love the you that randomly makes me breakfast sometimes, I love your eyes and your whole face." As Willow managed to gather some strength she stood up, a little stronger than before. Tara's words were working, her love was healing the broken magic inside of her in an instant. Tara's final act of love was to bestow a kiss onto Willow's lips. Drawing herself closer she cupped a soft palm around the redhead's cheek and melted their lips together in a sweet kiss, pouring every ounce of goodness and love into the kiss. It was her last act of love before Willow started kissing back.

She was grabbing Tara's waist and tugging at her bottom lip, encouraging the kiss further. When Tara pulled away out of sheer need for oxygen she met Willow's eyes, bright forest green again the way she should be, and when her hair fell back against her face it was a bright red colour again. Her face had it's usual rosy glow back to it as well, her cheeks a slight crimson blush however, as the warmth of the blood ran back into her she'd gotten a little to overfamiliar in her kisses, which she guessed was allowed seeing as she had girlfriend privileges.

"It's really you. You're back?" Tara said, trying to confirm before she got too relieved/excited. She couldn't believe love had worked, but in the back of her mind she knew it would, love always wins.

"Yes baby, it's me. And I love you too."

And that kids, is the story of how Willow and Tara saved the world with love, or one of the many stories in which they did that to be fair, they were really good at that. It was a whole new chapter in the story. But the moral is, love always wins, remember that kids.