Rating:  PG, just general Buffy-ish type things a-happenin'

Feedback:  I'd like that very much, thank you.

Spoilers:  If you know about Tara and Spike's Chip, you're good to go.

Distribution: Here.  If you're interested, please let me know.

Summary:  Willow's magic has backfired again, and this time she's so upset she decides it would be better if she leaves Sunnydale.

Author's Note:  Set sometime during Season 4. 

Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Mutant Enemy (Joss Whedon), a wonderfully creative company whose charcters I have borrowed for a completely profit-free flight of fancy.  Kindly do not sue me, please, as I am terrified of you.  Thank you.

Dedication:  For Joe, who is going to have a great future ahead of him.

Chapter 7

Mercifully, the book-strewn room began to melt away, and a moonlit cemetery took its place.  Willow looked around and realized in an instant that this was the same graveyard that she had patrolled with the Slayer countless times. 

Before Willow could say anything, Buffy appeared from behind a tombstone, fighting desperately with a newly risen vampire.  Once again, another of her friends was marked by change.  Her appearance was completely different.  She wore a grungy-looking sweat suit instead of one of her usual, well-coordinated outfits.  Not one stitch of make-up was on her face. Willow was startled to realize her hair was a mousy shade of brown. Buffy's attacks were far less polished and were completely unaccompanied by her usual lighthearted quips.  In fact, she actually appeared to be struggling.

"She won't last much longer.  One of these nights, her number will come up and a new Slayer will be called.  She nearly went crazy after Angel turned.  Without friends to support her, she simply doesn't have the strength to keep up the fight," Jenny explained as she watched the battle before them.

At long last, Buffy managed to stake the vampire and an explosion of dust showered over her.  Panting and clutching her side, she sat down on the grass. 

"She doesn't have any friends?"

"In high school she used to try to hang around with the Cordettes, but they never accepted her.  It was pitiful, really, the way she trailed after them.  She was around to be the butt of their jokes and nothing else.  Eventually even they lost interest in her, and she became a loner.  With the situation between her mother and Snyder, she didn't even want to come home at night.  She doesn't feel she belongs anywhere.  Maybe what they kept telling her in high school finally sunk in; she thinks she's worthless."

Buffy, the girl who had averted so many huge disasters, thought of herself as a failure?  It wasn't possible!  She, Willow, had always been the one everyone thought was the outsider in school.  But then, she'd had Buffy and Xander and Giles to make her feel she was important and special.  Buffy, the girl who had done more than anyone else in her life to make her feel that she was a valuable person and a good friend, was now far worse off than she had ever been.  Her eyes stung as she watched her best friend struggling to catch her breath from a fight that she should have been able to finish in two seconds with her eyes closed. 

"Are you beginning to understand why you are important to this group?  Do you see how much you've really done in your life?"

Willow nodded her head weakly as she realized she was once more outside the bus stop with the world frozen around her.

"Willow, you're going to make mistakes.  Everyone does.  There's no going through this life without occasionally slipping up.  What matters the most is that you keep trying to do what's right.  Not many people can say that.  Last night was, admittedly, a pretty big oops on your part, but your heart was in the right place.  If you were to leave, your friends wouldn't just miss you; they'd miss a part of their souls.  You have a very bright light inside you, Will.  In fact, it's one of the brightest I've ever encountered.  Give that light to them.  And by the way," she paused for a moment before smiling, "Giles is absolutely sick over what he said to you.  Don't think the rest of your friends let it pass, either.  Even Spike and Anya gave him a good tongue lashing for exploding on you like that.  Still, since he's Giles, of course he's being harder on himself than everyone else is.  Go forgive him, will you?  And give him my love."

From nowhere, the sounds of the busy street came back to her as the world began to move again.  Jenny had disappeared.